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The Beasts Of Tarzan
By
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Contents
Chapter
8 - The Dance of Death
Chapter
9 - Chivalry or Villainy
Chapter
12 - A Black Scoundrel
Chapter
14 - Alone in the Jungle
Chapter
16 - In the Darkness of the Night.
Chapter
17 - On the Deck of the "Kincaid".
Chapter
18 - Paulvitch Plots Revenge
Chapter
19 - The Last of the "Kincaid".
Chapter
20 - Jungle Island Again
Chapter
21 - The Law of the Jungle
"The entire
affair is shrouded in mystery," said D'Arnot. "I have it on the best of authorit=
y that
neither the police nor the special agents of the general staff have the
faintest conception of how it was accomplished.
All they know, all that anyone knows, is that Nikolas Rokoff has
escaped."
John Clayton, Lord
Greystoke--he who had been "Tarzan of the Apes"--sat in silence in
the apartments of his friend, Lieutenant Paul D'Arnot, in Paris, gazing
meditatively at the toe of his immaculate boot.
His mind revolved
many memories, recalled by the escape of his arch-enemy from the French
military prison to which he had been sentenced for life upon the testimony =
of
the ape-man.
He thought of the
lengths to which Rokoff had once gone to compass his death, and he realized
that what the man had already done would doubtless be as nothing by compari=
son
with what he would wish and plot to do now that he was again free.
Tarzan had recent=
ly
brought his wife and infant son to London to escape the discomforts and dan=
gers
of the rainy season upon their vast estate in Uziri--the land of the savage
Waziri warriors whose broad African domains the ape-man had once ruled.
He had run across=
the
Channel for a brief visit with his old friend, but the news of the Russian's
escape had already cast a shadow upon his outing, so that though he had but
just arrived he was already contemplating an immediate return to London.
"It is not t=
hat
I fear for myself, Paul," he said at last. "Many times in the past have I th=
warted
Rokoff's designs upon my life; but now there are others to consider. Unless I misjudge the man, he would more
quickly strike at me through my wife or son than directly at me, for he
doubtless realizes that in no other way could he inflict greater anguish up=
on
me. I must go back to them at once=
, and
remain with them until Rokoff is recaptured--or dead."
As these two talk=
ed
in Paris, two other men were talking together in a little cottage upon the
outskirts of London. Both were da=
rk, sinister-looking
men.
One was bearded, =
but
the other, whose face wore the pallor of long confinement within doors, had=
but
a few days' growth of black beard upon his face. It was he who was speaking.
"You must ne=
eds
shave off that beard of yours, Alexis," he said to his companion. "With it he would recognize you on=
the
instant. We must separate here in =
the
hour, and when we meet again upon the deck of the Kincaid, let us hope that=
we
shall have with us two honoured guests who little anticipate the pleasant
voyage we have planned for them.
"In two hour=
s I
should be upon my way to Dover with one of them, and by tomorrow night, if =
you
follow my instructions carefully, you should arrive with the other, provide=
d,
of course, that he returns to London as quickly as I presume he will.
"There shoul=
d be
both profit and pleasure as well as other good things to reward our efforts=
, my
dear Alexis. Thanks to the stupidi=
ty of
the French, they have gone to such lengths to conceal the fact of my escape=
for
these many days that I have had ample opportunity to work out every detail =
of
our little adventure so carefully that there is little chance of the slight=
est
hitch occurring to mar our prospects.
And now good-bye, and good luck!"
Three hours later=
a
messenger mounted the steps to the apartment of Lieutenant D'Arnot.
"A telegram =
for
Lord Greystoke," he said to the servant who answered his summons. "Is he here?"
The man answered =
in
the affirmative, and, signing for the message, carried it within to Tarzan,=
who
was already preparing to depart for London.
Tarzan tore open =
the
envelope, and as he read his face went white.
"Read it,
Paul," he said, handing the slip of paper to D'Arnot. "It has come already."
The Frenchman took
the telegram and read:
"Jack stolen
from the garden through complicity of new servant. Come at once.--JANE."
As Tarzan leaped from the roadster that =
had
met him at the station and ran up the steps to his London town house he was=
met
at the door by a dry-eyed but almost frantic woman.
Quickly Jane Port=
er
Clayton narrated all that she had been able to learn of the theft of the bo=
y.
The baby's nurse =
had
been wheeling him in the sunshine on the walk before the house when a closed
taxicab drew up at the corner of the street.
The woman had paid but passing attention to the vehicle, merely noti=
ng
that it discharged no passenger, but stood at the kerb with the motor runni=
ng
as though waiting for a fare from the residence before which it had stopped=
.
Almost immediately
the new houseman, Carl, had come running from the Greystoke house, saying t=
hat
the girl's mistress wished to speak with her for a moment, and that she was=
to
leave little Jack in his care until she returned.
The woman said th=
at
she entertained not the slightest suspicion of the man's motives until she =
had
reached the doorway of the house, when it occurred to her to warn him not to
turn the carriage so as to permit the sun to shine in the baby's eyes.
As she turned abo=
ut
to call this to him she was somewhat surprised to see that he was wheeling =
the
carriage rapidly toward the corner, and at the same time she saw the door of
the taxicab open and a swarthy face framed for a moment in the aperture.
Intuitively, the
danger to the child flashed upon her, and with a shriek she dashed down the
steps and up the walk toward the taxicab, into which Carl was now handing t=
he
baby to the swarthy one within.
Just before she
reached the vehicle, Carl leaped in beside his confederate, slamming the do=
or
behind him. At the same time the c=
hauffeur
attempted to start his machine, but it was evident that something had gone
wrong, as though the gears refused to mesh, and the delay caused by this, w=
hile
he pushed the lever into reverse and backed the car a few inches before aga=
in
attempting to go ahead, gave the nurse time to reach the side of the taxica=
b.
Leaping to the
running-board, she had attempted to snatch the baby from the arms of the
stranger, and here, screaming and fighting, she had clung to her position e=
ven
after the taxicab had got under way; nor was it until the machine had passed
the Greystoke residence at good speed that Carl, with a heavy blow to her f=
ace,
had succeeded in knocking her to the pavement.
Her screams had
attracted servants and members of the families from residences near by, as =
well
as from the Greystoke home. Lady
Greystoke had witnessed the girl's brave battle, and had herself tried to r=
each
the rapidly passing vehicle, but had been too late.
That was all that
anyone knew, nor did Lady Greystoke dream of the possible identity of the m=
an
at the bottom of the plot until her husband told her of the escape of Nikol=
as
Rokoff from the French prison where they had hoped he was permanently confi=
ned.
As Tarzan and his
wife stood planning the wisest course to pursue, the telephone bell rang in=
the
library at their right. Tarzan qui=
ckly answered
the call in person.
"Lord
Greystoke?" asked a man's voice at the other end of the line.
"Yes."<= o:p>
"Your son has
been stolen," continued the voice, "and I alone may help you to
recover him. I am conversant with =
the
plot of those who took him. In fac=
t, I
was a party to it, and was to share in the reward, but now they are trying =
to
ditch me, and to be quits with them I will aid you to recover him on condit=
ion
that you will not prosecute me for my part in the crime. What do you say?"
"If you lead=
me
to where my son is hidden," replied the ape-man, "you need fear
nothing from me."
"Good,"
replied the other. "But you m=
ust
come alone to meet me, for it is enough that I must trust you. I cannot take the chance of permitting =
others
to learn my identity."
"Where and w=
hen
may I meet you?" asked Tarzan.
The other gave the
name and location of a public-house on the water-front at Dover--a place
frequented by sailors.
"Come,"=
he
concluded, "about ten o'clock tonight.
It would do no good to arrive earlier.
Your son will be safe enough in the meantime, and I can then lead you
secretly to where he is hidden. Bu=
t be
sure to come alone, and under no circumstances notify Scotland Yard, for I =
know
you well and shall be watching for you.
"Should any
other accompany you, or should I see suspicious characters who might be age=
nts
of the police, I shall not meet you, and your last chance of recovering your
son will be gone."
Without more words
the man rang off.
Tarzan repeated t=
he
gist of the conversation to his wife.
She begged to be allowed to accompany him, but he insisted that it m=
ight
result in the man's carrying out his threat of refusing to aid them if Tarz=
an
did not come alone, and so they parted, he to hasten to Dover, and she, ost=
ensibly
to wait at home until he should notify her of the outcome of his mission.
Little did either
dream of what both were destined to pass through before they should meet ag=
ain,
or the far-distant--but why anticipate?
For ten minutes a=
fter
the ape-man had left her Jane Clayton walked restlessly back and forth acro=
ss
the silken rugs of the library. He=
r mother
heart ached, bereft of its first-born.
Her mind was in an anguish of hopes and fears.
Though her judgme=
nt
told her that all would be well were her Tarzan to go alone in accordance w=
ith
the mysterious stranger's summons, her intuition would not permit her to lay
aside suspicion of the gravest dangers to both her husband and her son.
The more she thou=
ght
of the matter, the more convinced she became that the recent telephone mess=
age
might be but a ruse to keep them inactive until the boy was safely hidden a=
way
or spirited out of England. Or it =
might
be that it had been simply a bait to lure Tarzan into the hands of the
implacable Rokoff.
With the lodgment=
of
this thought she stopped in wide-eyed terror. Instantly it became a
conviction. She glanced at the gre=
at
clock ticking the minutes in the corner of the library.
It was too late to
catch the Dover train that Tarzan was to take. There was another, later,
however, that would bring her to the Channel port in time to reach the addr=
ess
the stranger had given her husband before the appointed hour.
Summoning her maid
and chauffeur, she issued instructions rapidly.
Ten minutes later she was being whisked through the crowded streets
toward the railway station.
It was
nine-forty-five that night that Tarzan entered the squalid "pub" =
on the
water-front in Dover. As he passed=
into
the evil-smelling room a muffled figure brushed past him toward the street.=
"Come, my
lord!" whispered the stranger.
The ape-man wheel=
ed
about and followed the other into the ill-lit alley, which custom had digni=
fied
with the title of thoroughfare. On=
ce outside,
the fellow led the way into the darkness, nearer a wharf, where high-piled
bales, boxes, and casks cast dense shadows.
Here he halted.
"Where is the
boy?" asked Greystoke.
"On that sma=
ll
steamer whose lights you can just see yonder," replied the other.
In the gloom Tarz=
an
was trying to peer into the features of his companion, but he did not recog=
nize
the man as one whom he had ever before seen.
Had he guessed that his guide was Alexis Paulvitch he would have
realized that naught but treachery lay in the man's heart, and that danger
lurked in the path of every move.
"He is ungua=
rded
now," continued the Russian.
"Those who took him feel perfectly safe from detection, and with
the exception of a couple of members of the crew, whom I have furnished with
enough gin to silence them effectually for hours, there is none aboard the
Kincaid. We can go aboard, get the
child, and return without the slightest fear."
Tarzan nodded.
"Let's be ab=
out
it, then," he said.
His guide led him=
to
a small boat moored alongside the wharf.
The two men entered, and Paulvitch pulled rapidly toward the
steamer. The black smoke issuing f=
rom
her funnel did not at the time make any suggestion to Tarzan's mind. All his thoughts were occupied with the=
hope
that in a few moments he would again have his little son in his arms.
At the steamer's =
side
they found a monkey-ladder dangling close above them, and up this the two m=
en
crept stealthily. Once on deck th=
ey hastened
aft to where the Russian pointed to a hatch.
"The boy is
hidden there," he said. "=
;You
had better go down after him, as there is less chance that he will cry in
fright than should he find himself in the arms of a stranger. I will stand on guard here."
So anxious was Ta=
rzan
to rescue the child that he gave not the slightest thought to the strangene=
ss
of all the conditions surrounding the Kincaid.
That her deck was deserted, though she had steam up, and from the vo=
lume
of smoke pouring from her funnel was all ready to get under way made no
impression upon him.
With the thought =
that
in another instant he would fold that precious little bundle of humanity in=
his
arms, the ape-man swung down into the darkness below. Scarcely had he released his hold upon =
the
edge of the hatch than the heavy covering fell clattering above him.
Instantly he knew
that he was the victim of a plot, and that far from rescuing his son he had
himself fallen into the hands of his enemies. Though he immediately endeavo=
ured
to reach the hatch and lift the cover, he was unable to do so.
Striking a match,=
he
explored his surroundings, finding that a little compartment had been
partitioned off from the main hold, with the hatch above his head the only
means of ingress or egress. It was
evident that the room had been prepared for the very purpose of serving as =
a cell
for himself.
There was nothing=
in
the compartment, and no other occupant.
If the child was on board the Kincaid he was confined elsewhere.
For over twenty
years, from infancy to manhood, the ape-man had roamed his savage jungle ha=
unts
without human companionship of any nature.
He had learned at the most impressionable period of his life to take=
his
pleasures and his sorrows as the beasts take theirs.
So it was that he
neither raved nor stormed against fate, but instead waited patiently for wh=
at
might next befall him, though not by any means without an eye to doing the
utmost to succour himself. To this=
end
he examined his prison carefully, tested the heavy planking that formed its
walls, and measured the distance of the hatch above him.
And while he was =
thus
occupied there came suddenly to him the vibration of machinery and the
throbbing of the propeller.
The ship was
moving! Where to and to what fate =
was it
carrying him?
And even as these=
thoughts
passed through his mind there came to his ears above the din of the engines
that which caused him to go cold with apprehension.
Clear and shrill =
from
the deck above him rang the scream of a frightened woman.
As Tarzan and his=
guide
had disappeared into the shadows upon the dark wharf the figure of a heavily
veiled woman had hurried down the narrow alley to the entrance of the
drinking-place the two men had just quitted.
Here she paused a=
nd
looked about, and then as though satisfied that she had at last reached the
place she sought, she pushed bravely into the interior of the vile den.
A score of
half-drunken sailors and wharf-rats looked up at the unaccustomed sight of a
richly gowned woman in their midst.
Rapidly she approached the slovenly barmaid who stared half in envy,
half in hate, at her more fortunate sister.
"Have you se=
en a
tall, well-dressed man here, but a minute since," she asked, "who=
met
another and went away with him?"
The girl answered=
in
the affirmative, but could not tell which way the two had gone. A sailor who had approached to listen t=
o the conversation
vouchsafed the information that a moment before as he had been about to ent=
er
the "pub" he had seen two men leaving it who walked toward the wh=
arf.
"Show me the
direction they went," cried the woman, slipping a coin into the man's
hand.
The fellow led her
from the place, and together they walked quickly toward the wharf and along=
it
until across the water they saw a small boat just pulling into the shadows =
of a
near-by steamer.
"There they
be," whispered the man.
"Ten pounds =
if
you will find a boat and row me to that steamer," cried the woman.
"Quick,
then," he replied, "for we gotta go it if we're goin' to catch the
Kincaid afore she sails. She's had=
steam
up for three hours an' jest been a-waitin' fer that one passenger. I was a-talkin' to one of her crew 'ar=
f an
hour ago."
As he spoke he led
the way to the end of the wharf where he knew another boat lay moored, and,
lowering the woman into it, he jumped in after and pushed off. The two were soon scudding over the wat=
er.
At the steamer's =
side
the man demanded his pay and, without waiting to count out the exact amount,
the woman thrust a handful of bank-notes into his outstretched hand. A single glance at them convinced the f=
ellow
that he had been more than well paid.
Then he assisted her up the ladder, holding his skiff close to the
ship's side against the chance that this profitable passenger might wish to=
be
taken ashore later.
But presently the
sound of the donkey engine and the rattle of a steel cable on the hoisting-=
drum
proclaimed the fact that the Kincaid's anchor was being raised, and a moment
later the waiter heard the propellers revolving, and slowly the little stea=
mer
moved away from him out into the channel.
As he turned to r=
ow
back to shore he heard a woman's shriek from the ship's deck.
"That's wot I
calls rotten luck," he soliloquized.
"I might jest as well of 'ad the whole bloomin' wad."
When Jane Clayton climbed to the deck of=
the
Kincaid she found the ship apparently deserted.
There was no sign of those she sought nor of any other aboard, and so
she went about her search for her husband and the child she hoped against h=
ope
to find there without interruption.
Quickly she haste=
ned
to the cabin, which was half above and half below deck. As she hurried down the short
companion-ladder into the main cabin, on either side of which were the smal=
ler
rooms occupied by the officers, she failed to note the quick closing of one=
of
the doors before her. She passed t=
he
full length of the main room, and then retracing her steps stopped before e=
ach
door to listen, furtively trying each latch.
All was silence, utter silence there, in which the throbbing of her own frightened heart see= med to her overwrought imagination to fill the ship with its thunderous alarm.<= o:p>
One by one the do=
ors
opened before her touch, only to reveal empty interiors. In her absorption she did not note the =
sudden
activity upon the vessel, the purring of the engines, the throbbing of the
propeller. She had reached the last door upon the right now, and as she pus=
hed
it open she was seized from within by a powerful, dark-visaged man, and dra=
wn
hastily into the stuffy, ill-smelling interior.
The sudden shock =
of
fright which the unexpected attack had upon her drew a single piercing scre=
am
from her throat; then the man clapped a hand roughly over the mouth.
"Not until we
are farther from land, my dear," he said.
"Then you may yell your pretty head off."
Lady Greystoke tu=
rned
to look into the leering, bearded face so close to hers. The man relaxed the pressure of his fin=
gers
upon her lips, and with a little moan of terror as she recognized him the g=
irl
shrank away from her captor.
"Nikolas
Rokoff! M. Thuran!" she exclaimed.
"Your devote=
d admirer,"
replied the Russian, with a low bow.
"My little
boy," she said next, ignoring the terms of endearment--"where is
he? Let me have him. How could you be so cruel--even as
you--Nikolas Rokoff--cannot be entirely devoid of mercy and compassion? Tell me where he is. Is he aboard this ship? Oh, please, if such a thing as a heart =
beats
within your breast, take me to my baby!"
"If you do as
you are bid no harm will befall him," replied Rokoff. "But rememb=
er
that it is your own fault that you are here.
You came aboard voluntarily, and you may take the consequences. I little thought," he added to hi=
mself,
"that any such good luck as this would come to me."
He went on deck t=
hen,
locking the cabin-door upon his prisoner, and for several days she did not =
see
him. The truth of the matter being=
that Nikolas
Rokoff was so poor a sailor that the heavy seas the Kincaid encountered from
the very beginning of her voyage sent the Russian to his berth with a bad
attack of sea-sickness.
During this time =
her
only visitor was an uncouth Swede, the Kincaid's unsavoury cook, who brought
her meals to her. His name was Sv=
en Anderssen,
his one pride being that his patronymic was spelt with a double "s.&qu=
ot;
The man was tall =
and
raw-boned, with a long yellow moustache, an unwholesome complexion, and fil=
thy
nails. The very sight of him with=
one
grimy thumb buried deep in the lukewarm stew, that seemed, from the frequen=
cy
of its repetition, to constitute the pride of his culinary art, was suffici=
ent
to take away the girl's appetite.
His small, blue,
close-set eyes never met hers squarely.
There was a shiftiness of his whole appearance that even found
expression in the cat-like manner of his gait, and to it all a sinister
suggestion was added by the long slim knife that always rested at his waist,
slipped through the greasy cord that supported his soiled apron. Ostensibly it was but an implement of h=
is
calling; but the girl could never free herself of the conviction that it wo=
uld
require less provocation to witness it put to other and less harmless uses.=
His manner toward=
her
was surly, yet she never failed to meet him with a pleasant smile and a wor=
d of
thanks when he brought her food to her, though more often than not she hurl=
ed
the bulk of it through the tiny cabin port the moment that the door closed
behind him.
During the days of anguish that followed Jane Clayton's imprisonment, but two questions were uppermost in her mind--the whereabouts of her husband and her son. She fully believed that the baby was ab= oard the Kincaid, provided that he still lived, but whether Tarzan had been perm= itted to live after having been lured aboard the evil craft she could not guess.<= o:p>
She knew, of cour=
se,
the deep hatred that the Russian felt for the Englishman, and she could thi=
nk
of but one reason for having him brought aboard the ship--to dispatch him in
comparative safety in revenge for his having thwarted Rokoff's pet schemes,=
and
for having been at last the means of landing him in a French prison.
Tarzan, on his part, lay in the darkness=
of
his cell, ignorant of the fact that his wife was a prisoner in the cabin al=
most
above his head.
The same Swede th=
at
served Jane brought his meals to him, but, though on several occasions Tarz=
an
had tried to draw the man into conversation, he had been unsuccessful. He had hoped to learn through this fel=
low
whether his little son was aboard the Kincaid, but to every question upon t=
his
or kindred subjects the fellow returned but one reply, "Ay tank it blow
purty soon purty hard." So after several attempts Tarzan gave it up.
For weeks that se=
emed
months to the two prisoners the little steamer forged on they knew not
where. Once the Kincaid stopped to=
coal,
only immediately to take up the seemingly interminable voyage.
Rokoff had visited
Jane Clayton but once since he had locked her in the tiny cabin. He had come gaunt and hollow-eyed from =
a long
siege of sea-sickness. The object =
of his
visit was to obtain from her her personal cheque for a large sum in return =
for
a guarantee of her personal safety and return to England.
"When you se=
t me
down safely in any civilized port, together with my son and my husband,&quo=
t;
she replied, "I will pay you in gold twice the amount you ask; but unt=
il
then you shall not have a cent, nor the promise of a cent under any other c=
onditions."
"You will gi=
ve
me the cheque I ask," he replied with a snarl, "or neither you nor
your child nor your husband will ever again set foot within any port, civil=
ized
or otherwise."
"I would not
trust you," she replied. &quo=
t;What
guarantee have I that you would not take my money and then do as you pleased
with me and mine regardless of your promise?"
"I think you
will do as I bid," he said, turning to leave the cabin. "Remember
that I have your son--if you chance to hear the agonized wail of a tortured=
child
it may console you to reflect that it is because of your stubbornness that =
the
baby suffers--and that it is your baby."
"You would n=
ot
do it!" cried the girl. "=
;You
would not--could not be so fiendishly cruel!"
"It is not I
that am cruel, but you," he returned, "for you permit a paltry su=
m of
money to stand between your baby and immunity from suffering."
The end of it was
that Jane Clayton wrote out a cheque of large denomination and handed it to
Nikolas Rokoff, who left her cabin with a grin of satisfaction upon his lip=
s.
The following day=
the
hatch was removed from Tarzan's cell, and as he looked up he saw Paulvitch's
head framed in the square of light above him.
"Come up,&qu=
ot;
commanded the Russian. "But b=
ear in
mind that you will be shot if you make a single move to attack me or any ot=
her
aboard the ship."
The ape-man swung
himself lightly to the deck. About=
him,
but at a respectful distance, stood a half-dozen sailors armed with rifles =
and revolvers. Facing him was Paulvitch.
Tarzan looked abo= ut for Rokoff, who he felt sure must be aboard, but there was no sign of him.<= o:p>
"Lord
Greystoke," commenced the Russian, "by your continued and wanton =
interference
with M. Rokoff and his plans you h=
ave at
last brought yourself and your family to this unfortunate extremity. You have only yourself to thank. As you may imagine, it has cost M. Rokoff a large amount of money to finan=
ce
this expedition, and, as you are the sole cause of it, he naturally looks to
you for reimbursement.
"Further, I =
may
say that only by meeting M. Rokoff=
's
just demands may you avert the most unpleasant consequences to your wife and
child, and at the same time retain your own life and regain your liberty.&q=
uot;
"What is the
amount?" asked Tarzan. "=
And
what assurance have I that you will live up to your end of the agreement? I have little reason to trust two such
scoundrels as you and Rokoff, you know."
The Russian flush=
ed.
"You are in =
no
position to deliver insults," he said.
"You have no assurance that we will live up to our agreement ot=
her
than my word, but you have before you the assurance that we can make short =
work
of you if you do not write out the cheque we demand.
"Unless you =
are
a greater fool than I imagine, you should know that there is nothing that w=
ould
give us greater pleasure than to order these men to fire. That we do not is because we have other=
plans
for punishing you that would be entirely upset by your death."
"Answer one
question," said Tarzan. "=
;Is my
son on board this ship?"
"No,"
replied Alexis Paulvitch, "your son is quite safe elsewhere; nor will =
he
be killed until you refuse to accede to our fair demands. If it becomes necessary to kill you, th=
ere
will be no reason for not killing the child, since with you gone the one wh=
om
we wish to punish through the boy will be gone, and he will then be to us o=
nly
a constant source of danger and embarrassment.
You see, therefore, that you may only save the life of your son by
saving your own, and you can only save your own by giving us the cheque we
ask."
"Very
well," replied Tarzan, for he knew that he could trust them to carry o=
ut
any sinister threat that Paulvitch had made, and there was a bare chance th=
at
by conceding their demands he might save the boy.
That they would
permit him to live after he had appended his name to the cheque never occur=
red
to him as being within the realms of probability. But he was determined to give them such=
a
battle as they would never forget, and possibly to take Paulvitch with him =
into
eternity. He was only sorry that i=
t was
not Rokoff.
He took his pocket
cheque-book and fountain-pen from his pocket.
"What is the
amount?" he asked.
Paulvitch named an
enormous sum. Tarzan could scarce
restrain a smile.
Their very cupidi=
ty
was to prove the means of their undoing, in the matter of the ransom at
least. Purposely he hesitated and
haggled over the amount, but Paulvitch was obdurate. Finally the ape-man wrote out his cheq=
ue for
a larger sum than stood to his credit at the bank.
As he turned to h=
and
the worthless slip of paper to the Russian his glance chanced to pass across
the starboard bow of the Kincaid. =
To his
surprise he saw that the ship lay within a few hundred yards of land. Almost
down to the water's edge ran a dense tropical jungle, and behind was higher
land clothed in forest.
Paulvitch noted t=
he
direction of his gaze.
"You are to =
be
set at liberty here," he said.
Tarzan's plan for
immediate physical revenge upon the Russian vanished. He thought the land
before him the mainland of Africa, and he knew that should they liberate him
here he could doubtless find his way to civilization with comparative ease.=
Paulvitch took the
cheque.
"Remove your
clothing," he said to the ape-man.
"Here you will not need it."
Tarzan demurred.<= o:p>
Paulvitch pointed=
to
the armed sailors. Then the Englis=
hman
slowly divested himself of his clothing.
A boat was lowere=
d,
and, still heavily guarded, the ape-man was rowed ashore. Half an hour later the sailors had retu=
rned
to the Kincaid, and the steamer was slowly getting under way.
As Tarzan stood u=
pon
the narrow strip of beach watching the departure of the vessel he saw a fig=
ure
appear at the rail and call aloud to attract his attention.
The ape-man had b=
een
about to read a note that one of the sailors had handed him as the small bo=
at
that bore him to the shore was on the point of returning to the steamer, bu=
t at
the hail from the vessel's deck he looked up.
He saw a
black-bearded man who laughed at him in derision as he held high above his =
head
the figure of a little child. Tar=
zan
half started as though to rush through the surf and strike out for the alre=
ady moving
steamer; but realizing the futility of so rash an act he halted at the wate=
r's
edge.
Thus he stood, his
gaze riveted upon the Kincaid until it disappeared beyond a projecting
promontory of the coast.
From the jungle at
his back fierce bloodshot eyes glared from beneath shaggy overhanging brows
upon him.
Little monkeys in=
the
tree-tops chattered and scolded, and from the distance of the inland forest
came the scream of a leopard.
But still John
Clayton, Lord Greystoke, stood deaf and unseeing, suffering the pangs of ke=
en
regret for the opportunity that he had wasted because he had been so gullib=
le
as to place credence in a single statement of the first lieutenant of his
arch-enemy.
"I have at
least," he thought, "one consolation--the knowledge that Jane is =
safe
in London. Thank Heaven she, too, =
did
not fall into the clutches of those villains."
Behind him the ha=
iry
thing whose evil eyes had been watching him as a cat watches a mouse was
creeping stealthily toward him.
Where were the
trained senses of the savage ape-man?
Where the acute
hearing?
Where the uncanny
sense of scent?
Slowly Tarzan
unfolded the note the sailor had thrust into his hand, and read it. At first it made little impression on h=
is
sorrow-numbed senses, but finally the full purport of the hideous plot of
revenge unfolded itself before his imagination.
"This will
explain to you" [the note read] "the exact nature of my intentions
relative to your offspring and to you.
"You were bo=
rn
an ape. You lived naked in the
jungles--to your own we have returned you; but your son shall rise a step a=
bove
his sire. It is the immutable law =
of
evolution.
"The father =
was
a beast, but the son shall be a man--he shall take the next ascending step =
in
the scale of progress. He shall b=
e no
naked beast of the jungle, but shall wear a loin-cloth and copper anklets, =
and,
perchance, a ring in his nose, for he is to be reared by men--a tribe of sa=
vage
cannibals.
"I might have
killed you, but that would have curtailed the full measure of the punishment
you have earned at my hands.
"Dead, you c=
ould
not have suffered in the knowledge of your son's plight; but living and in a
place from which you may not escape to seek or succour your child, you shall
suffer worse than death for all the years of your life in contemplation of =
the
horrors of your son's existence.
"This, then,=
is
to be a part of your punishment for having dared to pit yourself against
N. R.
"P.S.--The
balance of your punishment has to do with what shall presently befall your
wife--that I shall leave to your imagination."
As he finished reading, a slight sound b=
ehind
him brought him back with a start to the world of present realities.
Instantly his sen=
ses
awoke, and he was again Tarzan of the Apes.
As he wheeled abo=
ut,
it was a beast at bay, vibrant with the instinct of self-preservation, that
faced a huge bull-ape that was already charging down upon him.
The two years that
had elapsed since Tarzan had come out of the savage forest with his rescued
mate had witnessed slight diminution of the mighty powers that had made him=
the
invincible lord of the jungle. His=
great
estates in Uziri had claimed much of his time and attention, and there he h=
ad
found ample field for the practical use and retention of his almost superhu=
man
powers; but naked and unarmed to do battle with the shaggy, bull-necked bea=
st
that now confronted him was a test that the ape-man would scarce have welco=
med
at any period of his wild existence.
But there was no =
alternative
other than to meet the rage-maddened creature with the weapons with which
nature had endowed him.
Over the bull's
shoulder Tarzan could see now the heads and shoulders of perhaps a dozen mo=
re
of these mighty fore-runners of primitive man.
He knew, however,
that there was little chance that they would attack him, since it is not wi=
thin
the reasoning powers of the anthropoid to be able to weigh or appreciate the
value of concentrated action against an enemy--otherwise they would long si=
nce
have become the dominant creatures of their haunts, so tremendous a power of
destruction lies in their mighty thews and savage fangs.
With a low snarl =
the
beast now hurled himself at Tarzan, but the ape-man had found, among other
things in the haunts of civilized man, certain methods of scientific warfare
that are unknown to the jungle folk.
Whereas, a few ye=
ars
since, he would have met the brute rush with brute force, he now sidestepped
his antagonist's headlong charge, and as the brute hurtled past him swung a
mighty right to the pit of the ape's stomach.
With a howl of
mingled rage and anguish the great anthropoid bent double and sank to the
ground, though almost instantly he was again struggling to his feet.
Before he could
regain them, however, his white-skinned foe had wheeled and pounced upon hi=
m,
and in the act there dropped from the shoulders of the English lord the last
shred of his superficial mantle of civilization.
Once again he was=
the
jungle beast revelling in bloody conflict with his kind. Once again he was Tarzan, son of Kala t=
he
she-ape.
His strong, white
teeth sank into the hairy throat of his enemy as he sought the pulsing jugu=
lar.
Powerful fingers =
held
the mighty fangs from his own flesh, or clenched and beat with the power of=
a
steam-hammer upon the snarling, foam-flecked face of his adversary.
In a circle about
them the balance of the tribe of apes stood watching and enjoying the
struggle. They muttered low guttur=
als of
approval as bits of white hide or hairy bloodstained skin were torn from on=
e contestant
or the other. But they were silent=
in
amazement and expectation when they saw the mighty white ape wriggle upon t=
he
back of their king, and, with steel muscles tensed beneath the armpits of h=
is antagonist,
bear down mightily with his open palms upon the back of the thick bullneck,=
so
that the king ape could but shriek in agony and flounder helplessly about u=
pon
the thick mat of jungle grass.
As Tarzan had
overcome the huge Terkoz that time years before when he had been about to s=
et
out upon his quest for human beings of his own kind and colour, so now he
overcame this other great ape with the same wrestling hold upon which he had
stumbled by accident during that other combat.
The little audience of fierce anthropoids heard the creaking of thei=
r king's
neck mingling with his agonized shrieks and hideous roaring.
Then there came a
sudden crack, like the breaking of a stout limb before the fury of the
wind. The bullet-head crumpled for=
ward
upon its flaccid neck against the great hairy chest--the roaring and the sh=
rieking
ceased.
The little pig-ey=
es
of the onlookers wandered from the still form of their leader to that of the
white ape that was rising to its feet beside the vanquished, then back to t=
heir
king as though in wonder that he did not arise and slay this presumptuous
stranger.
They saw the
new-comer place a foot upon the neck of the quiet figure at his feet and,
throwing back his head, give vent to the wild, uncanny challenge of the
bull-ape that has made a kill. The=
n they
knew that their king was dead.
Across the jungle
rolled the horrid notes of the victory cry.
The little monkeys in the tree-tops ceased their chattering. The harsh-voiced, brilliant-plumed bir=
ds
were still. From afar came the ans=
wering
wail of a leopard and the deep roar of a lion.
It was the old Ta=
rzan
who turned questioning eyes upon the little knot of apes before him. It was the old Tarzan who shook his hea=
d as
though to toss back a heavy mane that had fallen before his face--an old ha=
bit dating
from the days that his great shock of thick, black hair had fallen about his
shoulders, and often tumbled before his eyes when it had meant life or deat=
h to
him to have his vision unobstructed.
The ape-man knew =
that
he might expect an immediate attack on the part of that particular surviving
bull-ape who felt himself best fitted to contend for the kingship of the
tribe. Among his own apes he knew=
that
it was not unusual for an entire stranger to enter a community and, after
having dispatched the king, assume the leadership of the tribe himself,
together with the fallen monarch's mates.
On the other hand=
, if
he made no attempt to follow them, they might move slowly away from him, la=
ter
to fight among themselves for the supremacy.
That he could be king of them, if he so chose, he was confident; but=
he
was not sure he cared to assume the sometimes irksome duties of that positi=
on,
for he could see no particular advantage to be gained thereby.
One of the younger
apes, a huge, splendidly muscled brute, was edging threateningly closer to =
the
ape-man. Through his bared fighting
fangs there issued a low, sullen growl.
Tarzan watched his
every move, standing rigid as a statue.
To have fallen back a step would have been to precipitate an immedia=
te
charge; to have rushed forward to meet the other might have had the same re=
sult,
or it might have put the bellicose one to flight--it all depended upon the
young bull's stock of courage.
To stand perfectly
still, waiting, was the middle course.
In this event the bull would, according to custom, approach quite cl=
ose
to the object of his attention, growling hideously and baring slavering fan=
gs. Slowly
he would circle about the other, as though with a chip upon his shoulder; a=
nd
this he did, even as Tarzan had foreseen.
It might be a blu=
ff
royal, or, on the other hand, so unstable is the mind of an ape, a passing
impulse might hurl the hairy mass, tearing and rending, upon the man withou=
t an
instant's warning.
As the brute circ=
led
him Tarzan turned slowly, keeping his eyes ever upon the eyes of his
antagonist. He had appraised the y=
oung
bull as one who had never quite felt equal to the task of overthrowing his =
former
king, but who one day would have done so.
Tarzan saw that the beast was of wondrous proportions, standing over
seven feet upon his short, bowed legs.
His great, hairy =
arms
reached almost to the ground even when he stood erect, and his fighting fan=
gs,
now quite close to Tarzan's face, were exceptionally long and sharp. Like the others of his tribe, he differ=
ed in
several minor essentials from the apes of Tarzan's boyhood.
At first the ape-=
man
had experienced a thrill of hope at sight of the shaggy bodies of the
anthropoids--a hope that by some strange freak of fate he had been again
returned to his own tribe; but a closer inspection had convinced him that t=
hese
were another species.
As the threatening
bull continued his stiff and jerky circling of the ape-man, much after the
manner that you have noted among dogs when a strange canine comes among the=
m,
it occurred to Tarzan to discover if the language of his own tribe was
identical with that of this other family, and so he addressed the brute in =
the
language of the tribe of Kerchak.
"Who are
you," he asked, "who threatens Tarzan of the Apes?"
The hairy brute
looked his surprise.
"I am Akut,&=
quot;
replied the other in the same simple, primal tongue which is so low in the
scale of spoken languages that, as Tarzan had surmised, it was identical wi=
th
that of the tribe in which the first twenty years of his life had been spen=
t.
"I am
Akut," said the ape. "Mo=
lak is
dead. I am king. Go away or I shall kill you!"
"You saw how
easily I killed Molak," replied Tarzan.
"So I could kill you if I cared to be king. But Tarzan of the Apes would not be kin=
g of the
tribe of Akut. All he wishes is to=
live
in peace in this country. Let us be friends.
Tarzan of the Apes can help you, and you can help Tarzan of the
Apes."
"You cannot =
kill
Akut," replied the other.
"None is so great as Akut. Had you not killed Molak, Akut would
have done so, for Akut was ready to be king."
For answer the
ape-man hurled himself upon the great brute who during the conversation had
slightly relaxed his vigilance.
In the twinkling =
of
an eye the man had seized the wrist of the great ape, and before the other
could grapple with him had whirled him about and leaped upon his broad back=
.
Down they went
together, but so well had Tarzan's plan worked out that before ever they
touched the ground he had gained the same hold upon Akut that had broken
Molak's neck.
Slowly he brought=
the
pressure to bear, and then as in days gone by he had given Kerchak the chan=
ce
to surrender and live, so now he gave to Akut--in whom he saw a possible al=
ly
of great strength and resource--the option of living in amity with him or d=
ying
as he had just seen his savage and heretofore invincible king die.
"Ka-Goda?&qu=
ot;
whispered Tarzan to the ape beneath him.
It was the same
question that he had whispered to Kerchak, and in the language of the apes =
it
means, broadly, "Do you surrender?"
Akut thought of t=
he
creaking sound he had heard just before Molak's thick neck had snapped, and=
he
shuddered.
He hated to give =
up
the kingship, though, so again he struggled to free himself; but a sudden
torturing pressure upon his vertebra brought an agonized "ka-goda!&quo=
t;
from his lips.
Tarzan relaxed his
grip a trifle.
"You may sti=
ll
be king, Akut," he said.
"Tarzan told you that he did not wish to be king. If any question your right, Tarzan of t=
he
Apes will help you in your battles."
The ape-man rose,=
and
Akut came slowly to his feet. Sha=
king
his bullet head and growling angrily, he waddled toward his tribe, looking =
first
at one and then at another of the larger bulls who might be expected to
challenge his leadership.
But none did so;
instead, they drew away as he approached, and presently the whole pack moved
off into the jungle, and Tarzan was left alone once more upon the beach.
The ape-man was s=
ore
from the wounds that Molak had inflicted upon him, but he was inured to
physical suffering and endured it with the calm and fortitude of the wild
beasts that had taught him to lead the jungle life after the manner of all
those that are born to it.
His first need, he
realized, was for weapons of offence and defence, for his encounter with the
apes, and the distant notes of the savage voices of Numa the lion, and Shee=
ta,
the panther, warned him that his was to be no life of indolent ease and
security.
It was but a retu=
rn
to the old existence of constant bloodshed and danger--to the hunting and t=
he
being hunted. Grim beasts would st=
alk him,
as they had stalked him in the past, and never would there be a moment, by
savage day or by cruel night, that he might not have instant need of such c=
rude
weapons as he could fashion from the materials at hand.
Upon the shore he
found an out-cropping of brittle, igneous rock.
By dint of much labour he managed to chip off a narrow sliver some
twelve inches long by a quarter of an inch thick. One edge was quite thin for a few inche=
s near
the tip. It was the rudiment of a =
knife.
With it he went i=
nto
the jungle, searching until he found a fallen tree of a certain species of
hardwood with which he was familiar.
From this he cut a small straight branch, which he pointed at one en=
d.
Then he scooped a
small, round hole in the surface of the prostrate trunk. Into this he crumbled a few bits of dry=
bark,
minutely shredded, after which he inserted the tip of his pointed stick, an=
d, sitting
astride the bole of the tree, spun the slender rod rapidly between his palm=
s.
After a time a th=
in
smoke rose from the little mass of tinder, and a moment later the whole bro=
ke
into flame. Heaping some larger t=
wigs and
sticks upon the tiny fire, Tarzan soon had quite a respectable blaze roarin=
g in
the enlarging cavity of the dead tree.
Into this he thru=
st
the blade of his stone knife, and as it became superheated he would withdraw
it, touching a spot near the thin edge with a drop of moisture. Beneath the wetted area a little flake =
of the
glassy material would crack and scale away.
Thus, very slowly,
the ape-man commenced the tedious operation of putting a thin edge upon his
primitive hunting-knife.
He did not attemp=
t to
accomplish the feat all in one sitting.
At first he was content to achieve a cutting edge of a couple of inc=
hes,
with which he cut a long, pliable bow, a handle for his knife, a stout cudg=
el,
and a goodly supply of arrows.
These he cached i=
n a
tall tree beside a little stream, and here also he constructed a platform w=
ith
a roof of palm-leaves above it.
When all these th=
ings
had been finished it was growing dusk, and Tarzan felt a strong desire to e=
at.
He had noted duri=
ng
the brief incursion he had made into the forest that a short distance up-st=
ream
from his tree there was a much-used watering place, where, from the trampled
mud of either bank, it was evident beasts of all sorts and in great numbers
came to drink. To this spot the hu=
ngry
ape-man made his silent way.
Through the upper
terrace of the tree-tops he swung with the grace and ease of a monkey. But for the heavy burden upon his heart=
he
would have been happy in this return to the old free life of his boyhood.
Yet even with that
burden he fell into the little habits and manners of his early life that we=
re
in reality more a part of him than the thin veneer of civilization that the
past three years of his association with the white men of the outer world h=
ad
spread lightly over him--a veneer that only hid the crudities of the beast =
that
Tarzan of the Apes had been.
Could his
fellow-peers of the House of Lords have seen him then they would have held =
up
their noble hands in holy horror.
Silently he crouc=
hed
in the lower branches of a great forest giant that overhung the trail, his =
keen
eyes and sensitive ears strained into the distant jungle, from which he knew
his dinner would presently emerge.
Nor had he long to
wait.
Scarce had he set=
tled
himself to a comfortable position, his lithe, muscular legs drawn well up
beneath him as the panther draws his hindquarters in preparation for the
spring, than Bara, the deer, came daintily down to drink.
But more than Bar=
a was
coming. Behind the graceful buck c=
ame
another which the deer could neither see nor scent, but whose movements wer=
e apparent
to Tarzan of the Apes because of the elevated position of the ape-man's amb=
ush.
He knew not yet
exactly the nature of the thing that moved so stealthily through the jungle=
a
few hundred yards behind the deer; but he was convinced that it was some gr=
eat
beast of prey stalking Bara for the selfsame purpose as that which prompted=
him
to await the fleet animal. Numa,
perhaps, or Sheeta, the panther.
In any event, Tar=
zan
could see his repast slipping from his grasp unless Bara moved more rapidly
toward the ford than at present.
Even as these
thoughts passed through his mind some noise of the stalker in his rear must
have come to the buck, for with a sudden start he paused for an instant,
trembling, in his tracks, and then with a swift bound dashed straight for t=
he
river and Tarzan. It was his inten=
tion
to flee through the shallow ford and escape upon the opposite side of the
river.
Not a hundred yar=
ds
behind him came Numa.
Tarzan could see =
him
quite plainly now. Below the ape-m=
an
Bara was about to pass. Could he do
it? But even as he asked himself t=
he question
the hungry man launched himself from his perch full upon the back of the st=
artled
buck.
In another instant
Numa would be upon them both, so if the ape-man were to dine that night, or
ever again, he must act quickly.
Scarcely had he
touched the sleek hide of the deer with a momentum that sent the animal to =
its
knees than he had grasped a horn in either hand, and with a single quick wr=
ench
twisted the animal's neck completely round, until he felt the vertebrae snap
beneath his grip.
The lion was roar=
ing
in rage close behind him as he swung the deer across his shoulder, and,
grasping a foreleg between his strong teeth, leaped for the nearest of the
lower branches that swung above his head.
With both hands he
grasped the limb, and, at the instant that Numa sprang, drew himself and his
prey out of reach of the animal's cruel talons.
There was a thud
below him as the baffled cat fell back to earth, and then Tarzan of the Ape=
s,
drawing his dinner farther up to the safety of a higher limb, looked down w=
ith
grinning face into the gleaming yellow eyes of the other wild beast that gl=
ared
up at him from beneath, and with taunting insults flaunted the tender carca=
ss
of his kill in the face of him whom he had cheated of it.
With his crude st=
one
knife he cut a juicy steak from the hindquarters, and while the great lion
paced, growling, back and forth below him, Lord Greystoke filled his savage
belly, nor ever in the choicest of his exclusive London clubs had a meal ta=
sted
more palatable.
The warm blood of=
his
kill smeared his hands and face and filled his nostrils with the scent that=
the
savage carnivora love best.
And when he had
finished he left the balance of the carcass in a high fork of the tree wher=
e he
had dined, and with Numa trailing below him, still keen for revenge, he made
his way back to his tree-top shelter, where he slept until the sun was high=
the
following morning.
The next few days
were occupied by Tarzan in completing his weapons and exploring the
jungle. He strung his bow with ten=
dons
from the buck upon which he had dined his first evening upon the new shore,=
and
though he would have preferred the gut of Sheeta for the purpose, he was
content to wait until opportunity permitted him to kill one of the great ca=
ts.
He also braided a
long grass rope--such a rope as he had used so many years before to tantali=
ze
the ill-natured Tublat, and which later had developed into a wondrous effec=
tive
weapon in the practised hands of the little ape-boy.
A sheath and hand=
le
for his hunting-knife he fashioned, and a quiver for arrows, and from the h=
ide
of Bara a belt and loin-cloth. The=
n he set
out to learn something of the strange land in which he found himself. That it was not his old familiar west c=
oast
of the African continent he knew from the fact that it faced east--the risi=
ng
sun came up out of the sea before the threshold of the jungle.
But that it was n=
ot
the east coast of Africa he was equally positive, for he felt satisfied that
the Kincaid had not passed through the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, and t=
he
Red Sea, nor had she had time to round the Cape of Good Hope. So he was quite at a loss to know where=
he
might be.
Sometimes he wond=
ered
if the ship had crossed the broad Atlantic to deposit him upon some wild So=
uth
American shore; but the presence of Numa, the lion, decided him that such c=
ould
not be the case.
As Tarzan made his
lonely way through the jungle paralleling the shore, he felt strong upon hi=
m a
desire for companionship, so that gradually he commenced to regret that he =
had
not cast his lot with the apes. He=
had
seen nothing of them since that first day, when the influences of civilizat=
ion
were still paramount within him.
Now he was more
nearly returned to the Tarzan of old, and though he appreciated the fact th=
at
there could be little in common between himself and the great anthropoids,
still they were better than no company at all.
Moving leisurely,
sometimes upon the ground and again among the lower branches of the trees,
gathering an occasional fruit or turning over a fallen log in search of the
larger bugs, which he still found as palatable as of old, Tarzan had covere=
d a
mile or more when his attention was attracted by the scent of Sheeta up-wind
ahead of him.
Now Sheeta, the
panther, was one whom Tarzan was exceptionally glad to fall in with, for he=
had
it in mind not only to utilize the great cat's strong gut for his bow, but =
also
to fashion a new quiver and loin-cloth from pieces of his hide. So, whereas the ape-man had gone carel=
essly
before, he now became the personification of noiseless stealth.
Swiftly and silen=
tly
he glided through the forest in the wake of the savage cat, nor was the
pursuer, for all his noble birth, one whit less savage than the wild, fierce
thing he stalked.
As he came closer=
to
Sheeta he became aware that the panther on his part was stalking game of his
own, and even as he realized this fact there came to his nostrils, wafted f=
rom
his right by a vagrant breeze, the strong odour of a company of great apes.=
The panther had t=
aken
to a large tree as Tarzan came within sight of him, and beyond and below him
Tarzan saw the tribe of Akut lolling in a little, natural clearing. Some of them were dozing against the bo=
les of
trees, while others roamed about turning over bits of bark from beneath whi=
ch
they transferred the luscious grubs and beetles to their mouths.
Akut was the clos=
est
to Sheeta.
The great cat lay
crouched upon a thick limb, hidden from the ape's view by dense foliage,
waiting patiently until the anthropoid should come within range of his spri=
ng.
Tarzan cautiously
gained a position in the same tree with the panther and a little above
him. In his left hand he grasped h=
is
slim stone blade. He would have
preferred to use his noose, but the foliage surrounding the huge cat preclu=
ded
the possibility of an accurate throw with the rope.
Akut had now wand=
ered
quite close beneath the tree wherein lay the waiting death. Sheeta slowly edged his hind paws along=
the
branch still further beneath him, and then with a hideous shriek he launche=
d himself
toward the great ape. The barest
fraction of a second before his spring another beast of prey above him leap=
ed,
its weird and savage cry mingling with his.
As the startled A=
kut
looked up he saw the panther almost above him, and already upon the panther=
's
back the white ape that had bested him that day near the great water.
The teeth of the ape-man were buried in the back of Sheeta's neck and his right arm was round the fierce throat, while the left hand, grasping a slender piece of stone, = rose and fell in mighty blows upon the panther's side behind the left shoulder.<= o:p>
Akut had just tim=
e to
leap to one side to avoid being pinioned beneath these battling monsters of=
the
jungle.
With a crash they
came to earth at his feet. Sheeta =
was
screaming, snarling, and roaring horribly; but the white ape clung tenaciou=
sly
and in silence to the thrashing body of his quarry.
Steadily and
remorselessly the stone knife was driven home through the glossy hide--time=
and
again it drank deep, until with a final agonized lunge and shriek the great
feline rolled over upon its side and, save for the spasmodic jerking of its
muscles, lay quiet and still in death.
Then the ape-man
raised his head, as he stood over the carcass of his kill, and once again
through the jungle rang his wild and savage victory challenge.
Akut and the apes=
of
Akut stood looking in startled wonder at the dead body of Sheeta and the li=
the,
straight figure of the man who had slain him.
Tarzan was the fi=
rst
to speak.
He had saved Akut=
's
life for a purpose, and, knowing the limitations of the ape intellect, he a=
lso
knew that he must make this purpose plain to the anthropoid if it were to s=
erve
him in the way he hoped.
"I am Tarzan=
of
the Apes," he said, "Mighty hunter.
Mighty fighter. By the great water I spared Akut's life when I might
have taken it and become king of the tribe of Akut. Now I have saved Akut from death beneat=
h the
rending fangs of Sheeta.
"When Akut or
the tribe of Akut is in danger, let them call to Tarzan thus"--and the
ape-man raised the hideous cry with which the tribe of Kerchak had been won=
t to
summon its absent members in times of peril.
"And," =
he
continued, "when they hear Tarzan call to them, let them remember what=
he
has done for Akut and come to him with great speed. Shall it be as Tarzan
says?"
"Huh!"
assented Akut, and from the members of his tribe there rose a unanimous
"Huh."
Then, presently, =
they
went to feeding again as though nothing had happened, and with them fed John
Clayton, Lord Greystoke.
He noticed, howev=
er,
that Akut kept always close to him, and was often looking at him with a str=
ange
wonder in his little bloodshot eyes, and once he did a thing that Tarzan du=
ring
all his long years among the apes had never before seen an ape do--he found=
a
particularly tender morsel and handed it to Tarzan.
As the tribe hunt=
ed,
the glistening body of the ape-man mingled with the brown, shaggy hides of =
his
companions. Oftentimes they brush=
ed together
in passing, but the apes had already taken his presence for granted, so tha=
t he
was as much one of them as Akut himself.
If he came too cl=
ose
to a she with a young baby, the former would bare her great fighting fangs =
and
growl ominously, and occasionally a truculent young bull would snarl a warn=
ing
if Tarzan approached while the former was eating. But in those things the treatment was n=
o different
from that which they accorded any other member of the tribe.
Tarzan on his part
felt very much at home with these fierce, hairy progenitors of primitive
man. He skipped nimbly out of reac=
h of
each threatening female--for such is the way of apes, if they be not in one=
of
their occasional fits of bestial rage--and he growled back at the truculent
young bulls, baring his canine teeth even as they. Thus easily he fell back into the way o=
f his
early life, nor did it seem that he had ever tasted association with creatu=
res
of his own kind.
For the better pa=
rt
of a week he roamed the jungle with his new friends, partly because of a de=
sire
for companionship and partially through a well-laid plan to impress himself
indelibly upon their memories, which at best are none too long; for Tarzan =
from
past experience knew that it might serve him in good stead to have a tribe =
of
these powerful and terrible beasts at his call.
When he was convi=
nced
that he had succeeded to some extent in fixing his identity upon them he
decided to again take up his exploration.
To this end he set out toward the north early one day, and, keeping =
parallel
with the shore, travelled rapidly until almost nightfall.
When the sun rose=
the
next morning he saw that it lay almost directly to his right as he stood up=
on
the beach instead of straight out across the water as heretofore, and so he
reasoned that the shore line had trended toward the west. All the second day he continued his ra=
pid course,
and when Tarzan of the Apes sought speed, he passed through the middle terr=
ace
of the forest with the rapidity of a squirrel.
That night the sun
set straight out across the water opposite the land, and then the ape-man
guessed at last the truth that he had been suspecting.
Rokoff had set him
ashore upon an island.
He might have kno=
wn
it! If there was any plan that wou=
ld
render his position more harrowing he should have known that such would be =
the
one adopted by the Russian, and what could be more terrible than to leave h=
im
to a lifetime of suspense upon an uninhabited island?
Rokoff doubtless =
had
sailed directly to the mainland, where it would be a comparatively easy thi=
ng
for him to find the means of delivering the infant Jack into the hands of t=
he
cruel and savage foster-parents, who, as his note had threatened, would have
the upbringing of the child.
Tarzan shuddered = as he thought of the cruel suffering the little one must endure in such a life, even though he might fall into the hands of individuals whose intentions to= ward him were of the kindest. The ape-m= an had had sufficient experience with the lower savages of Africa to know that even there may be found the cruder virtues of charity and humanity; but their li= ves were at best but a series of terrible privations, dangers, and sufferings.<= o:p>
Then there was the
horrid after-fate that awaited the child as he grew to manhood. The horrible practices that would form =
a part
of his life-training would alone be sufficient to bar him forever from asso=
ciation
with those of his own race and station in life.
A cannibal! His little boy a savage man-eater! It was too horrible to contemplate.
The filed teeth, =
the
slit nose, the little face painted hideously. Tarzan groaned. Could he but feel the throat of the Russ
fiend beneath his steel fingers!
And Jane!
What tortures of
doubt and fear and uncertainty she must be suffering. He felt that his posi=
tion
was infinitely less terrible than hers, for he at least knew that one of his
loved ones was safe at home, while she had no idea of the whereabouts of ei=
ther
her husband or her son.
It is well for Ta=
rzan
that he did not guess the truth, for the knowledge would have but added a
hundredfold to his suffering.
As he moved slowly
through the jungle his mind absorbed by his gloomy thoughts, there presently
came to his ears a strange scratching sound which he could not translate.
Cautiously he mov=
ed
in the direction from which it emanated, presently coming upon a huge panth=
er
pinned beneath a fallen tree.
As Tarzan approac=
hed,
the beast turned, snarling, toward him, struggling to extricate itself; but=
one
great limb across its back and the smaller entangling branches pinioning its
legs prevented it from moving but a few inches in any direction.
The ape-man stood
before the helpless cat fitting an arrow to his bow that he might dispatch =
the
beast that otherwise must die of starvation; but even as he drew back the s=
haft
a sudden whim stayed his hand.
Why rob the poor
creature of life and liberty, when it would be so easy a thing to restore b=
oth
to it! He was sure from the fact t=
hat
the panther moved all its limbs in its futile struggle for freedom that its=
spine
was uninjured, and for the same reason he knew that none of its limbs were
broken.
Relaxing his
bowstring, he returned the arrow to the quiver and, throwing the bow about =
his
shoulder, stepped closer to the pinioned beast.
On his lips was t=
he
soothing, purring sound that the great cats themselves made when contented =
and
happy. It was the nearest approach=
to a
friendly advance that Tarzan could make in the language of Sheeta.
The panther ceased
his snarling and eyed the ape-man closely.=
To lift the tree's great weight from the animal it was necessary to =
come
within reach of those long, strong talons, and when the tree had been remov=
ed the
man would be totally at the mercy of the savage beast; but to Tarzan of the
Apes fear was a thing unknown.
Having decided, he
acted promptly.
Unhesitatingly, he
stepped into the tangle of branches close to the panther's side, still voic=
ing
his friendly and conciliatory purr. The cat
turned his head toward the man, eyeing him steadily--questioningly. The long
fangs were bared, but more in preparedness than threat. Tarzan put a broad
shoulder beneath the bole of the tree, and as he did so his bare leg pressed
against the cat's silken side, so close was the man to the great beast. Slowly Tarzan
extended his giant thews. The great tree wi=
th
its entangling branches rose gradually from the panther, who, feeling the
encumbering weight diminish, quickly crawled from beneath. Tarzan let the tree fall back to earth,=
and
the two beasts turned to look upon one another. A grim smile lay =
upon
the ape-man's lips, for he knew that he had taken his life in his hands to =
free
this savage jungle fellow; nor would it have surprised him had the cat spru=
ng
upon him the instant that it had been released. But it did not do
so. Instead, it stood a few paces =
from
the tree watching the ape-man clamber out of the maze of fallen branches. Once outside, Tar=
zan
was not three paces from the panther.
He might have taken to the higher branches of the trees upon the
opposite side, for Sheeta cannot climb to the heights to which the ape-man =
can
go; but something, a spirit of bravado perhaps, prompted him to approach th=
e panther
as though to discover if any feeling of gratitude would prompt the beast to
friendliness. As he approached =
the
mighty cat the creature stepped warily to one side, and the ape-man brushed
past him within a foot of the dripping jaws, and as he continued on through=
the
forest the panther followed on behind him, as a hound follows at heel. For a long time
Tarzan could not tell whether the beast was following out of friendly feeli=
ngs
or merely stalking him against the time he should be hungry; but finally he=
was
forced to believe that the former incentive it was that prompted the animal=
's
action. Later in the day =
the
scent of a deer sent Tarzan into the trees, and when he had dropped his noo=
se
about the animal's neck he called to Sheeta, using a purr similar to that w=
hich
he had utilized to pacify the brute's suspicions earlier in the day, but a =
trifle
louder and more shrill. It was similar to
that which he had heard panthers use after a kill when they had been huntin=
g in
pairs. Almost immediately
there was a crashing of the underbrush close at hand, and the long, lithe b=
ody
of his strange companion broke into view. At sight of the b=
ody
of Bara and the smell of blood the panther gave forth a shrill scream, and a
moment later two beasts were feeding side by side upon the tender meat of t=
he
deer. For several days =
this
strangely assorted pair roamed the jungle together. When one made a k=
ill
he called the other, and thus they fed well and often. On one occasion as
they were dining upon the carcass of a boar that Sheeta had dispatched, Num=
a,
the lion, grim and terrible, broke through the tangled grasses close beside
them. With an angry,
warning roar he sprang forward to chase them from their kill. Sheeta bounded into a near-by thicket, =
while
Tarzan took to the low branches of an overhanging tree. Here the ape-man
unloosed his grass rope from about his neck, and as Numa stood above the bo=
dy
of the boar, challenging head erect, he dropped the sinuous noose about the
maned neck, drawing the stout strands taut with a sudden jerk. At the same time he called shrilly to
Sheeta, as he drew the struggling lion upward until only his hind feet touc=
hed
the ground. Quickly he made t=
he
rope fast to a stout branch, and as the panther, in answer to his summons,
leaped into sight, Tarzan dropped to the earth beside the struggling and
infuriated Numa, and with a long sharp knife sprang upon him at one side ev=
en
as Sheeta did upon the other. The panther tore =
and
rent Numa upon the right, while the ape-man struck home with his stone knife
upon the other, so that before the mighty clawing of the king of beasts had
succeeded in parting the rope he hung quite dead and harmless in the noose.=
And then upon the
jungle air there rose in unison from two savage throats the victory cry of =
the
bull-ape and the panther, blended into one frightful and uncanny scream. As the last notes
died away in a long-drawn, fearsome wail, a score of painted warriors, draw=
ing
their long war-canoe upon the beach, halted to stare in the direction of the
jungle and to listen. By the time that
Tarzan had travelled entirely about the coast of the island, and made sever=
al
trips inland from various points, he was sure that he was the only human be=
ing
upon it. Nowhere had he fo=
und
any sign that men had stopped even temporarily upon this shore, though, of
course, he knew that so quickly does the rank vegetation of the tropics era=
se
all but the most permanent of human monuments that he might be in error in =
his
deductions. The day following=
the
killing of Numa, Tarzan and Sheeta came upon the tribe of Akut. At sight of the panther the great apes =
took
to flight, but after a time Tarzan succeeded in recalling them. It had occurred to
him that it would be at least an interesting experiment to attempt to recon=
cile
these hereditary enemies. He welco=
med
anything that would occupy his time and his mind beyond the filling of his
belly and the gloomy thoughts to which he fell prey the moment that he beca=
me
idle. To communicate his
plan to the apes was not a particularly difficult matter, though their narr=
ow
and limited vocabulary was strained in the effort; but to impress upon the
little, wicked brain of Sheeta that he was to hunt with and not for his
legitimate prey proved a task almost beyond the powers of the ape-man. Tarzan, among his
other weapons, possessed a long, stout cudgel, and after fastening his rope
about the panther's neck he used this instrument freely upon the snarling
beast, endeavouring in this way to impress upon its memory that it must not
attack the great, shaggy manlike creatures that had approached more closely
once they had seen the purpose of the rope about Sheeta's neck. That the cat did =
not
turn and rend Tarzan is something of a miracle which may possibly be accoun=
ted
for by the fact that twice when it turned growling upon the ape-man he had
rapped it sharply upon its sensitive nose, inculcating in its mind thereby a
most wholesome fear of the cudgel and the ape-beasts behind it. It is a question =
if
the original cause of his attachment for Tarzan was still at all clear in t=
he
mind of the panther, though doubtless some subconscious suggestion,
superinduced by this primary reason and aided and abetted by the habit of t=
he
past few days, did much to compel the beast to tolerate treatment at his ha=
nds
that would have sent it at the throat of any other creature. Then, too, there =
was
the compelling force of the manmind exerting its powerful influence over th=
is
creature of a lower order, and, after all, it may have been this that proved
the most potent factor in Tarzan's supremacy over Sheeta and the other beas=
ts
of the jungle that had from time to time fallen under his domination. Be that as it may,
for days the man, the panther, and the great apes roamed their savage haunts
side by side, making their kills together and sharing them with one another,
and of all the fierce and savage band none was more terrible than the
smooth-skinned, powerful beast that had been but a few short months before a
familiar figure in many a London drawing room. Sometimes the bea=
sts
separated to follow their own inclinations for an hour or a day, and it was
upon one of these occasions when the ape-man had wandered through the tree-=
tops
toward the beach, and was stretched in the hot sun upon the sand, that from=
the
low summit of a near-by promontory a pair of keen eyes discovered him. For a moment the
owner of the eyes looked in astonishment at the figure of the savage white =
man
basking in the rays of that hot, tropic sun; then he turned, making a sign =
to
some one behind him. Presently ano=
ther
pair of eyes were looking down upon the ape-man, and then another and anoth=
er,
until a full score of hideously trapped, savage warriors were lying upon th=
eir
bellies along the crest of the ridge watching the white-skinned stranger. They were down wi=
nd
from Tarzan, and so their scent was not carried to him, and as his back was
turned half toward them he did not see their cautious advance over the edge=
of
the promontory and down through the rank grass toward the sandy beach where=
he
lay. Big fellows they
were, all of them, their barbaric headdresses and grotesquely painted faces,
together with their many metal ornaments and gorgeously coloured feathers,
adding to their wild, fierce appearance. Once at the foot =
of
the ridge, they came cautiously to their feet, and, bent half-double, advan=
ced
silently upon the unconscious white man, their heavy war-clubs swinging
menacingly in their brawny hands. The mental suffer=
ing
that Tarzan's sorrowful thoughts induced had the effect of numbing his keen,
perceptive faculties, so that the advancing savages were almost upon him be=
fore
he became aware that he was no longer alone upon the beach. So quickly, thoug=
h,
were his mind and muscles wont to react in unison to the slightest alarm th=
at
he was upon his feet and facing his enemies, even as he realized that somet=
hing
was behind him. As he sprang to hi=
s feet
the warriors leaped toward him with raised clubs and savage yells, but the
foremost went down to sudden death beneath the long, stout stick of the
ape-man, and then the lithe, sinewy figure was among them, striking right a=
nd
left with a fury, power, and precision that brought panic to the ranks of t=
he
blacks. For a moment they
withdrew, those that were left of them, and consulted together at a short
distance from the ape-man, who stood with folded arms, a half-smile upon his
handsome face, watching them. Pres=
ently they
advanced upon him once more, this time wielding their heavy war-spears. They were between Tarzan and the jungle=
, in a
little semicircle that closed in upon him as they advanced. There seemed to t=
he
ape-man but slight chance to escape the final charge when all the great spe=
ars
should be hurled simultaneously at him; but if he had desired to escape the=
re
was no way other than through the ranks of the savages except the open sea
behind him. His predicament w=
as
indeed most serious when an idea occurred to him that altered his smile to a
broad grin. The warriors were sti=
ll
some little distance away, advancing slowly, making, after the manner of th=
eir
kind, a frightful din with their savage yells and the pounding of their nak=
ed
feet upon the ground as they leaped up and down in a fantastic war dance. Then it was that =
the
ape-man lifted his voice in a series of wild, weird screams that brought the
blacks to a sudden, perplexed halt. They looked at one another questioningl=
y,
for here was a sound so hideous that their own frightful din faded into
insignificance beside it. No human
throat could have formed those bestial notes, they were sure, and yet with
their own eyes they had seen this white man open his mouth to pour forth his
awful cry. But only for a mo=
ment
they hesitated, and then with one accord they again took up their fantastic
advance upon their prey; but even then a sudden crashing in the jungle behi=
nd
them brought them once more to a halt, and as they turned to look in the di=
rection
of this new noise there broke upon their startled visions a sight that may =
well
have frozen the blood of braver men than the Wagambi. Leaping from the
tangled vegetation of the jungle's rim came a huge panther, with blazing ey=
es
and bared fangs, and in his wake a score of mighty, shaggy apes lumbering
rapidly toward them, half erect upon their short, bowed legs, and with their
long arms reaching to the ground, where their horny knuckles bore the weigh=
t of
their ponderous bodies as they lurched from side to side in their grotesque
advance. The beasts of Tar=
zan
had come in answer to his call. Before the Wagambi
could recover from their astonishment the frightful horde was upon them from
one side and Tarzan of the Apes from the other.
Heavy spears were hurled and mighty war-clubs wielded, and though ap=
es
went down never to rise, so, too, went down the men of Ugambi. Sheeta's cruel fa=
ngs
and tearing talons ripped and tore at the black hides. Akut's mighty yellow tusks found the ju=
gular
of more than one sleek-skinned savage, and Tarzan of the Apes was here and
there and everywhere, urging on his fierce allies and taking a heavy toll w=
ith his
long, slim knife. In a moment the
blacks had scattered for their lives, but of the score that had crept down =
the
grassy sides of the promontory only a single warrior managed to escape the
horde that had overwhelmed his people. This one was Muga=
mbi,
chief of the Wagambi of Ugambi, and as he disappeared in the tangled
luxuriousness of the rank growth upon the ridge's summit only the keen eyes=
of
the ape-man saw the direction of his flight. Leaving his pack =
to
eat their fill upon the flesh of their victims--flesh that he could not
touch--Tarzan of the Apes pursued the single survivor of the bloody fray.
Chapter 5 - Mugambi
Just beyond the ridge he came within si=
ght of
the fleeing black, making with headlong leaps for a long war-canoe that was
drawn well up upon the beach above the high tide surf.
Noiseless as the
fellow's shadow, the ape-man raced after the terror-stricken black. In the white man's mind was a new plan,=
awakened
by sight of the war-canoe. If thes=
e men
had come to his island from another, or from the mainland, why not utilize
their craft to make his way to the country from which they had come? Evidently it was an inhabited country, =
and no
doubt had occasional intercourse with the mainland, if it were not itself u=
pon
the continent of Africa.
A heavy hand fell
upon the shoulder of the escaping Mugambi before he was aware that he was b=
eing
pursued, and as he turned to do battle with his assailant giant fingers clo=
sed
about his wrists and he was hurled to earth with a giant astride him before=
he
could strike a blow in his own defence.
In the language of
the West Coast, Tarzan spoke to the prostrate man beneath him.
"Who are
you?" he asked.
"Mugambi, ch=
ief
of the Wagambi," replied the black.
"I will spare
your life," said Tarzan, "if you will promise to help me to leave
this island. What do you answer?&q=
uot;
"I will help
you," replied Mugambi. "=
But
now that you have killed all my warriors, I do not know that even I can lea=
ve
your country, for there will be none to wield the paddles, and without padd=
lers
we cannot cross the water."
Tarzan rose and allowed his prisoner to =
come
to his feet. The fellow was a
magnificent specimen of manhood--a black counterpart in physique of the
splendid white man whom he faced.
"Come!"
said the ape-man, and started back in the direction from which they could h=
ear
the snarling and growling of the feasting pack. Mugambi drew back.
"They will k=
ill
us," he said.
"I think
not," replied Tarzan. "T=
hey
are mine."
Still the black
hesitated, fearful of the consequences of approaching the terrible creatures
that were dining upon the bodies of his warriors; but Tarzan forced him to
accompany him, and presently the two emerged from the jungle in full view of
the grisly spectacle upon the beach. At
sight of the men the beasts looked up with menacing growls, but Tarzan stro=
de
in among them, dragging the trembling Wagambi with him. As he had taught =
the
apes to accept Sheeta, so he taught them to adopt Mugambi as well, and much
more easily; but Sheeta seemed quite unable to understand that though he had
been called upon to devour Mugambi's warriors he was not to be allowed to
proceed after the same fashion with Mugambi.
However, being well filled, he contented himself with walking round =
the
terror-stricken savage, emitting low, menacing growls the while he kept his
flaming, baleful eyes riveted upon the black. Mugambi, on his p=
art,
clung closely to Tarzan, so that the ape-man could scarce control his laugh=
ter
at the pitiable condition to which the chief's fear had reduced him; but at
length the white took the great cat by the scruff of the neck and, dragging=
it
quite close to the Wagambi, slapped it sharply upon the nose each time that=
it
growled at the stranger. At the sight of t=
he
thing--a man mauling with his bare hands one of the most relentless and fie=
rce
of the jungle carnivora--Mugambi's eyes bulged from their sockets, and from
entertaining a sullen respect for the giant white man who had made him
prisoner, the black felt an almost worshipping awe of Tarzan. The education of
Sheeta progressed so well that in a short time Mugambi ceased to be the obj=
ect
of his hungry attention, and the black felt a degree more of safety in his
society. To say that Mugam=
bi
was entirely happy or at ease in his new environment would not be to adhere
strictly to the truth. His eyes we=
re
constantly rolling apprehensively from side to side as now one and now anot=
her
of the fierce pack chanced to wander near him, so that for the most of the =
time
it was principally the whites that showed. Together Tarzan a=
nd
Mugambi, with Sheeta and Akut, lay in wait at the ford for a deer, and when=
at
a word from the ape-man the four of them leaped out upon the affrighted ani=
mal
the black was sure that the poor creature died of fright before ever one of=
the
great beasts touched it. Mugambi built a f=
ire
and cooked his portion of the kill; but Tarzan, Sheeta, and Akut tore their=
s,
raw, with their sharp teeth, growling among themselves when one ventured to
encroach upon the share of another. It was not, after
all, strange that the white man's ways should have been so much more nearly
related to those of the beasts than were the savage blacks. We are, all of us, creatures of habit, =
and
when the seeming necessity for schooling ourselves in new ways ceases to ex=
ist,
we fall naturally and easily into the manners and customs which long usage =
has
implanted ineradicably within us. Mugambi from
childhood had eaten no meat until it had been cooked, while Tarzan, on the
other hand, had never tasted cooked food of any sort until he had grown alm=
ost
to manhood, and only within the past three or four years had he eaten cooked
meat. Not only did the habit of a
lifetime prompt him to eat it raw, but the craving of his palate as well; f=
or
to him cooked flesh was spoiled flesh when compared with the rich and juicy
meat of a fresh, hot kill. That he could, wi=
th
relish, eat raw meat that had been buried by himself weeks before, and enjoy
small rodents and disgusting grubs, seems to us who have been always
"civilized" a revolting fact; but had we learned in childhood to =
eat
these things, and had we seen all those about us eat them, they would seem =
no
more sickening to us now than do many of our greatest dainties, at which a
savage African cannibal would look with repugnance and turn up his nose. For instance, the=
re
is a tribe in the vicinity of Lake Rudolph that will eat no sheep or cattle,
though its next neighbors do so. N=
ear by
is another tribe that eats donkey-meat--a custom most revolting to the surr=
ounding
tribes that do not eat donkey. So =
who
may say that it is nice to eat snails and frogs' legs and oysters, but
disgusting to feed upon grubs and beetles, or that a raw oyster, hoof, horn=
s,
and tail, is less revolting than the sweet, clean meat of a fresh-killed bu=
ck? The next few days
Tarzan devoted to the weaving of a barkcloth sail with which to equip the
canoe, for he despaired of being able to teach the apes to wield the paddle=
s,
though he did manage to get several of them to embark in the frail craft wh=
ich
he and Mugambi paddled about inside the reef where the water was quite smoo=
th. During these trip=
s he
had placed paddles in their hands, when they attempted to imitate the movem=
ents
of him and Mugambi, but so difficult is it for them long to concentrate upo=
n a
thing that he soon saw that it would require weeks of patient training befo=
re
they would be able to make any effective use of these new implements, if, in
fact, they should ever do so. There was one
exception, however, and he was Akut.
Almost from the first he showed an interest in this new sport that
revealed a much higher plane of intelligence than that attained by any of h=
is
tribe. He seemed to grasp the purpose of the paddles, and when Tarzan saw t=
hat this
was so he took much pains to explain in the meagre language of the anthropo=
id
how they might be used to the best advantage. From Mugambi Tarz=
an
learned that the mainland lay but a short distance from the island. It seemed that the Wagambi warriors had
ventured too far out in their frail craft, and when caught by a heavy tide =
and
a high wind from off-shore they had been driven out of sight of land. After
paddling for a whole night, thinking that they were headed for home, they h=
ad
seen this land at sunrise, and, still taking it for the mainland, had haile=
d it
with joy, nor had Mugambi been aware that it was an island until Tarzan had
told him that this was the fact. The Wagambi chief=
was
quite dubious as to the sail, for he had never seen such a contrivance
used. His country lay far up the b=
road
Ugambi River, and this was the first occasion that any of his people had fo=
und their
way to the ocean. Tarzan, however, =
was
confident that with a good west wind he could navigate the little craft to =
the
mainland. At any rate, he decided,=
it would
be preferable to perish on the way than to remain indefinitely upon this
evidently uncharted island to which no ships might ever be expected to come=
. And so it was that
when the first fair wind rose he embarked upon his cruise, and with him he =
took
as strange and fearsome a crew as ever sailed under a savage master. Mugambi and Akut =
went
with him, and Sheeta, the panther, and a dozen great males of the tribe of
Akut. The war-canoe with
its savage load moved slowly toward the break in the reef through which it =
must
pass to gain the open sea. Tarzan,
Mugambi, and Akut wielded the paddles, for the shore kept the west wind from
the little sail. Sheeta crouched in
the bow at the ape-man's feet, for it had seemed best to Tarzan always to k=
eep
the wicked beast as far from the other members of the party as possible, si=
nce
it would require little or no provocation to send him at the throat of any =
than
the white man, whom he evidently now looked upon as his master. In the stern was
Mugambi, and just in front of him squatted Akut, while between Akut and Tar=
zan
the twelve hairy apes sat upon their haunches, blinking dubiously this way =
and
that, and now and then turning their eyes longingly back toward shore. All went well unt=
il
the canoe had passed beyond the reef.
Here the breeze struck the sail, sending the rude craft lunging among
the waves that ran higher and higher as they drew away from the shore. With the tossing =
of
the boat the apes became panic-stricken.
They first moved uneasily about, and then commenced grumbling and
whining. With difficulty Akut kept them in hand for a time; but when a part=
icularly
large wave struck the dugout simultaneously with a little squall of wind th=
eir
terror broke all bounds, and, leaping to their feet, they all but overturned
the boat before Akut and Tarzan together could quiet them. At last calm was restored, and eventual=
ly the
apes became accustomed to the strange antics of their craft, after which no=
more
trouble was experienced with them. The trip was
uneventful, the wind held, and after ten hours' steady sailing the black
shadows of the coast loomed close before the straining eyes of the ape-man =
in
the bow. It was far too dark to di=
stinguish
whether they had approached close to the mouth of the Ugambi or not, so Tar=
zan
ran in through the surf at the closest point to await the dawn. The dugout turned
broadside the instant that its nose touched the sand, and immediately it ro=
lled
over, with all its crew scrambling madly for the shore. The next breaker rolled them over and o=
ver,
but eventually they all succeeded in crawling to safety, and in a moment mo=
re
their ungainly craft had been washed up beside them. The balance of the
night the apes sat huddled close to one another for warmth; while Mugambi b=
uilt
a fire close to them over which he crouched.
Tarzan and Sheeta, however, were of a different mind, for neither of
them feared the jungle night, and the insistent craving of their hunger sent
them off into the Stygian blackness of the forest in search of prey. Side by side they
walked when there was room for two abreast.
At other times in single file, first one and then the other in
advance. It was Tarzan who first c=
aught
the scent of meat--a bull buffalo--and presently the two came stealthily up=
on
the sleeping beast in the midst of a dense jungle of reeds close to a river=
. Closer and closer
they crept toward the unsuspecting beast, Sheeta upon his right side and Ta=
rzan
upon his left nearest the great heart.
They had hunted together now for some time, so that they worked in
unison, with only low, purring sounds as signals. For a moment they=
lay
quite silent near their prey, and then at a sign from the ape-man Sheeta sp=
rang
upon the great back, burying his strong teeth in the bull's neck. Instantly the brute sprang to his feet=
with a
bellow of pain and rage, and at the same instant Tarzan rushed in upon his =
left
side with the stone knife, striking repeatedly behind the shoulder. One of the ape-ma=
n's
hands clutched the thick mane, and as the bull raced madly through the reeds
the thing striking at his life was dragged beside him. Sheeta but clung tenaciously to his hol=
d upon
the neck and back, biting deep in an effort to reach the spine. For several hundr=
ed
yards the bellowing bull carried his two savage antagonists, until at last =
the
blade found his heart, when with a final bellow that was half-scream he plu=
nged
headlong to the earth. Then Tarzan=
and
Sheeta feasted to repletion. After the meal the
two curled up together in a thicket, the man's black head pillowed upon the
tawny side of the panther. Shortly
after dawn they awoke and ate again, and then returned to the beach that Ta=
rzan
might lead the balance of the pack to the kill. When the meal was
done the brutes were for curling up to sleep, so Tarzan and Mugambi set off=
in
search of the Ugambi River. They =
had proceeded
scarce a hundred yards when they came suddenly upon a broad stream, which t=
he
Negro instantly recognized as that down which he and his warriors had paddl=
ed
to the sea upon their ill-starred expedition. The two now follo=
wed
the stream down to the ocean, finding that it emptied into a bay not over a
mile from the point upon the beach at which the canoe had been thrown the n=
ight
before. Tarzan was much
elated by the discovery, as he knew that in the vicinity of a large waterco=
urse
he should find natives, and from some of these he had little doubt but that=
he
should obtain news of Rokoff and the child, for he felt reasonably certain =
that
the Russian would rid himself of the baby as quickly as possible after havi=
ng
disposed of Tarzan. He and Mugambi now
righted and launched the dugout, though it was a most difficult feat in the
face of the surf which rolled continuously in upon the beach; but at last t=
hey
were successful, and soon after were paddling up the coast toward the mouth=
of
the Ugambi. Here they experienced
considerable difficulty in making an entrance against the combined current =
and
ebb tide, but by taking advantage of eddies close in to shore they came abo=
ut
dusk to a point nearly opposite the spot where they had left the pack aslee=
p. Making the craft =
fast
to an overhanging bough, the two made their way into the jungle, presently
coming upon some of the apes feeding upon fruit a little beyond the reeds w=
here
the buffalo had fallen. Sheeta was=
not
anywhere to be seen, nor did he return that night, so that Tarzan came to
believe that he had wandered away in search of his own kind. Early the next
morning the ape-man led his band down to the river, and as he walked he gave
vent to a series of shrill cries.
Presently from a great distance and faintly there came an answering
scream, and a half-hour later the lithe form of Sheeta bounded into view wh=
ere
the others of the pack were clambering gingerly into the canoe. The great beast, =
with
arched back and purring like a contented tabby, rubbed his sides against the
ape-man, and then at a word from the latter sprang lightly to his former pl=
ace
in the bow of the dugout. When all were in
place it was discovered that two of the apes of Akut were missing, and thou=
gh
both the king ape and Tarzan called to them for the better part of an hour,
there was no response, and finally the boat put off without them. As it happened that the two missing on=
es were
the very same who had evinced the least desire to accompany the expedition =
from
the island, and had suffered the most from fright during the voyage, Tarzan=
was
quite sure that they had absented themselves purposely rather than again en=
ter
the canoe. As the party were
putting in for the shore shortly after noon to search for food a slender, n=
aked
savage watched them for a moment from behind the dense screen of verdure wh=
ich
lined the river's bank, then he melted away up-stream before any of those in
the canoe discovered him. Like a deer he
bounded along the narrow trail until, filled with the excitement of his new=
s,
he burst into a native village several miles above the point at which Tarzan
and his pack had stopped to hunt. "Another whi=
te
man is coming!" he cried to the chief who squatted before the entrance=
to
his circular hut. "Another w=
hite
man, and with him are many warriors.
They come in a great war-canoe to kill and rob as did the black-bear=
ded
one who has just left us." Kaviri leaped to =
his
feet. He had but recently had a ta=
ste of
the white man's medicine, and his savage heart was filled with bitterness a=
nd
hate. In another moment the rumble=
of
the war-drums rose from the village, calling in the hunters from the forest=
and
the tillers from the fields. Seven war-canoes =
were
launched and manned by paint-daubed, befeathered warriors. Long spears bristled from the rude
battle-ships, as they slid noiselessly over the bosom of the water, propell=
ed
by giant muscles rolling beneath glistening, ebony hides. There was no beat=
ing
of tom-toms now, nor blare of native horn, for Kaviri was a crafty warrior,=
and
it was in his mind to take no chances, if they could be avoided. He would swoop noiselessly down with hi=
s seven
canoes upon the single one of the white man, and before the guns of the lat=
ter
could inflict much damage upon his people he would have overwhelmed the ene=
my
by force of numbers. Kaviri's own canoe
went in advance of the others a short distance, and as it rounded a sharp b=
end
in the river where the swift current bore it rapidly on its way it came
suddenly upon the thing that Kaviri sought. So close were the=
two
canoes to one another that the black had only an opportunity to note the wh=
ite
face in the bow of the oncoming craft before the two touched and his own men
were upon their feet, yelling like mad devils and thrusting their long spea=
rs
at the occupants of the other canoe. But a moment late=
r,
when Kaviri was able to realize the nature of the crew that manned the white
man's dugout, he would have given all the beads and iron wire that he posse=
ssed
to have been safely within his distant village. Scarcely had the two craft come togeth=
er
than the frightful apes of Akut rose, growling and barking, from the bottom=
of the
canoe, and, with long, hairy arms far outstretched, grasped the menacing sp=
ears
from the hands of Kaviri's warriors. The blacks were
overcome with terror, but there was nothing to do other than to fight. Now came the other war-canoes rapidly d=
own
upon the two craft. Their occupant=
s were
eager to join the battle, for they thought that their foes were white men a=
nd
their native porters. They swarmed about
Tarzan's craft; but when they saw the nature of the enemy all but one turned
and paddled swiftly up-river. Tha=
t one
came too close to the ape-man's craft before its occupants realized that th=
eir
fellows were pitted against demons instead of men. As it touched Tarzan spoke a few low wo=
rds to
Sheeta and Akut, so that before the attacking warriors could draw away there
sprang upon them with a blood-freezing scream a huge panther, and into the
other end of their canoe clambered a great ape. At one end the
panther wrought fearful havoc with his mighty talons and long, sharp fangs,
while Akut at the other buried his yellow canines in the necks of those that
came within his reach, hurling the terror-stricken blacks overboard as he m=
ade
his way toward the centre of the canoe. Kaviri was so bus=
ily
engaged with the demons that had entered his own craft that he could offer =
no
assistance to his warriors in the other. A giant of a white devil had wrest=
ed
his spear from him as though he, the mighty Kaviri, had been but a new-born
babe. Hairy monsters were overcomi=
ng his
fighting men, and a black chieftain like himself was fighting shoulder to
shoulder with the hideous pack that opposed him. Kaviri battled
bravely against his antagonist, for he felt that death had already claimed =
him,
and so the least that he could do would be to sell his life as dearly as
possible; but it was soon evident that his best was quite futile when pitted
against the superhuman brawn and agility of the creature that at last found=
his
throat and bent him back into the bottom of the canoe. Presently Kaviri's
head began to whirl--objects became confused and dim before his eyes--there=
was
a great pain in his chest as he struggled for the breath of life that the t=
hing
upon him was shutting off for ever. Then
he lost consciousness. When he opened his
eyes once more he found, much to his surprise, that he was not dead. He lay, securely bound, in the bottom o=
f his
own canoe. A great panther sat upo=
n its
haunches, looking down upon him. Kaviri shuddered =
and
closed his eyes again, waiting for the ferocious creature to spring upon him
and put him out of his misery of terror. After a moment, no
rending fangs having buried themselves in his trembling body, he again vent=
ured
to open his eyes. Beyond the pant=
her
kneeled the white giant who had overcome him. The man was wield=
ing
a paddle, while directly behind him Kaviri saw some of his own warriors
similarly engaged. Back of them a=
gain squatted
several of the hairy apes. Tarzan, seeing th=
at
the chief had regained consciousness, addressed him. "Your warrio=
rs
tell me that you are the chief of a numerous people, and that your name is
Kaviri," he said. "Yes,"
replied the black. "Why did you
attack me? I came in peace."<=
o:p> "Another whi=
te
man 'came in peace' three moons ago," replied Kaviri; "and after =
we
had brought him presents of a goat and cassava and milk, he set upon us with
his guns and killed many of my people, and then went on his way, taking all=
of
our goats and many of our young men and women." "I am not as
this other white man," replied Tarzan.
"I should not have harmed you had you not set upon me. Tell me, what was the face of this bad=
white
man like? I am searching for one w=
ho has
wronged me. Possibly this may be the very one." "He was a man
with a bad face, covered with a great, black beard, and he was very, very
wicked--yes, very wicked indeed." "Was there a
little white child with him?" asked Tarzan, his heart almost stopped a=
s he
awaited the black's answer. "No,
bwana," replied Kaviri, "the white child was not with this man's =
party--it
was with the other party." "Other
party!" exclaimed Tarzan. &qu=
ot;What
other party?" "With the pa=
rty
that the very bad white man was pursuing.
There was a white man, woman, and the child, with six Mosula
porters. They passed up the river =
three
days ahead of the very bad white man. I
think that they were running away from him." A white man, woma=
n,
and child! Tarzan was puzzled. The child must be his little Jack; but =
who
could the woman be--and the man? W=
as it possible
that one of Rokoff's confederates had conspired with some woman--who had
accompanied the Russian--to steal the baby from him? If this was the c=
ase,
they had doubtless purposed returning the child to civilization and there
either claiming a reward or holding the little prisoner for ransom. But now that Roko=
ff
had succeeded in chasing them far inland, up the savage river, there could =
be
little doubt but that he would eventually overhaul them, unless, as was sti=
ll
more probable, they should be captured and killed by the very cannibals far=
ther
up the Ugambi, to whom, Tarzan was now convinced, it had been Rokoff's
intention to deliver the baby. As he talked to
Kaviri the canoes had been moving steadily up-river toward the chief's
village. Kaviri's warriors plied t=
he
paddles in the three canoes, casting sidelong, terrified glances at their
hideous passengers. Three of the a=
pes of
Akut had been killed in the encounter, but there were, with Akut, eight of =
the
frightful beasts remaining, and there was Sheeta, the panther, and Tarzan a=
nd
Mugambi. Kaviri's warriors
thought that they had never seen so terrible a crew in all their lives. Momentarily they expected to be pounced=
upon
and torn asunder by some of their captors; and, in fact, it was all that Ta=
rzan
and Mugambi and Akut could do to keep the snarling, ill-natured brutes from
snapping at the glistening, naked bodies that brushed against them now and =
then
with the movements of the paddlers, whose very fear added incitement to the
beasts. At Kaviri's camp
Tarzan paused only long enough to eat the food that the blacks furnished, a=
nd
arrange with the chief for a dozen men to man the paddles of his canoe. Kaviri was only t=
oo
glad to comply with any demands that the ape-man might make if only such
compliance would hasten the departure of the horrid pack; but it was easier=
, he
discovered, to promise men than to furnish them, for when his people learned
his intentions those that had not already fled into the jungle proceeded to=
do
so without loss of time, so that when Kaviri turned to point out those who =
were
to accompany Tarzan, he discovered that he was the only member of his tribe
left within the village. Tarzan could not
repress a smile. "They do not
seem anxious to accompany us," he said; "but just remain quietly
here, Kaviri, and presently you shall see your people flocking to your
side." Then the ape-man
rose, and, calling his pack about him, commanded that Mugambi remain with
Kaviri, and disappeared in the jungle with Sheeta and the apes at his heels=
. For half an hour =
the
silence of the grim forest was broken only by the ordinary sounds of the
teeming life that but adds to its lowering loneliness. Kaviri and Mugambi sat alone in the pal=
isaded
village, waiting. Presently from a
great distance came a hideous sound.
Mugambi recognized the weird challenge of the ape-man. Immediately from different points of t=
he compass
rose a horrid semicircle of similar shrieks and screams, punctuated now and
again by the blood-curdling cry of a hungry panther. The two savages,
Kaviri and Mugambi, squatting before the entrance to Kaviri's hut, looked at
one another--Kaviri with ill-concealed alarm. "What is
it?" he whispered. "It is Bwana
Tarzan and his people," replied Mugambi.
"But what they are doing I know not, unless it be that they are
devouring your people who ran away." Kaviri shuddered =
and
rolled his eyes fearfully toward the jungle.
In all his long life in the savage forest he had never heard such an=
awful,
fearsome din. Closer and closer
came the sounds, and now with them were mingled the terrified shrieks of wo=
men
and children and of men. For twent=
y long
minutes the blood-curdling cries continued, until they seemed but a stone's
throw from the palisade. Kaviri ro=
se to
flee, but Mugambi seized and held him, for such had been the command of Tar=
zan. A moment later a
horde of terrified natives burst from the jungle, racing toward the shelter=
of
their huts. Like frightened sheep =
they ran,
and behind them, driving them as sheep might be driven, came Tarzan and She=
eta
and the hideous apes of Akut. Presently Tarzan
stood before Kaviri, the old quiet smile upon his lips. "Your people
have returned, my brother," he said, "and now you may select those
who are to accompany me and paddle my canoe." Tremblingly Kaviri
tottered to his feet, calling to his people to come from their huts; but no=
ne
responded to his summons. "Tell
them," suggested Tarzan, "that if they do not come I shall send my
people in after them." Kaviri did as he =
was
bid, and in an instant the entire population of the village came forth, the=
ir
wide and frightened eyes rolling from one to another of the savage creatures
that wandered about the village street. Quickly Kaviri
designated a dozen warriors to accompany Tarzan. The poor fellows went almost white with
terror at the prospect of close contact with the panther and the apes in the
narrow confines of the canoes; but when Kaviri explained to them that there=
was
no escape--that Bwana Tarzan would pursue them with his grim horde should t=
hey
attempt to run away from the duty--they finally went gloomily down to the r=
iver
and took their places in the canoe. It was with a sig=
h of
relief that their chieftain saw the party disappear about a headland a short
distance up-river. For three days the
strange company continued farther and farther into the heart of the savage
country that lies on either side of the almost unexplored Ugambi. Three of the twelve warriors deserted d=
uring
that time; but as several of the apes had finally learned the secret of the=
paddles,
Tarzan felt no dismay because of the loss. As a matter of fa=
ct,
he could have travelled much more rapidly on shore, but he believed that he
could hold his own wild crew together to better advantage by keeping them to
the boat as much as possible. Twice a day they landed to hunt and feed, and=
at
night they slept upon the bank of the mainland or on one of the numerous li=
ttle
islands that dotted the river. Before them the
natives fled in alarm, so that they found only deserted villages in their p=
ath
as they proceeded. Tarzan was anx=
ious
to get in touch with some of the savages who dwelt upon the river's banks, =
but so
far he had been unable to do so. Finally he decide=
d to
take to the land himself, leaving his company to follow after him by boat.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He explained to Mugambi the thing that =
he had
in mind, and told Akut to follow the directions of the black. "I will join=
you
again in a few days," he said.
"Now I go ahead to learn what has become of the very bad white =
man
whom I seek." At the next halt
Tarzan took to the shore, and was soon lost to the view of his people. The first few
villages he came to were deserted, showing that news of the coming of his p=
ack
had travelled rapidly; but toward evening he came upon a distant cluster of
thatched huts surrounded by a rude palisade, within which were a couple of
hundred natives. The women were
preparing the evening meal as Tarzan of the Apes poised above them in the
branches of a giant tree which overhung the palisade at one point. The ape-man was a=
t a
loss as to how he might enter into communication with these people without
either frightening them or arousing their savage love of battle. He had no desire to fight now, for he w=
as
upon a much more important mission than that of battling with every chance =
tribe
that he should happen to meet with. At last he hit up=
on a
plan, and after seeing that he was concealed from the view of those below, =
he
gave a few hoarse grunts in imitation of a panther. All eyes immediately turned upward towa=
rd the
foliage above. It was growing da=
rk,
and they could not penetrate the leafy screen which shielded the ape-man fr=
om
their view. The moment that he had=
won their
attention he raised his voice to the shriller and more hideous scream of the
beast he personated, and then, scarce stirring a leaf in his descent, dropp=
ed
to the ground once again outside the palisade, and, with the speed of a dee=
r,
ran quickly round to the village gate. Here he beat upon=
the
fibre-bound saplings of which the barrier was constructed, shouting to the
natives in their own tongue that he was a friend who wished food and shelter
for the night. Tarzan knew well =
the
nature of the black man. He was aw=
are
that the grunting and screaming of Sheeta in the tree above them would set
their nerves on edge, and that his pounding upon their gate after dark woul=
d still
further add to their terror. That they did not=
reply
to his hail was no surprise, for natives are fearful of any voice that comes
out of the night from beyond their palisades, attributing it always to some
demon or other ghostly visitor; but still he continued to call. "Let me in, =
my
friends!" he cried. "I a=
m a
white man pursuing the very bad white man who passed this way a few days
ago. I follow to punish him for th=
e sins
he has committed against you and me. "If you doub=
t my
friendship, I will prove it to you by going into the tree above your villag=
e and
driving Sheeta back into the jungle before he leaps among you. If you will not promise to take me in a=
nd
treat me as a friend I shall let Sheeta stay and devour you." For a moment there
was silence. Then the voice of an =
old
man came out of the quiet of the village street. "If you are
indeed a white man and a friend, we will let you come in; but first you must
drive Sheeta away." "Very
well," replied Tarzan.
"Listen, and you shall hear Sheeta fleeing before me." The ape-man retur=
ned
quickly to the tree, and this time he made a great noise as he entered the
branches, at the same time growling ominously after the manner of the panth=
er,
so that those below would believe that the great beast was still there. When he reached a
point well above the village street he made a great commotion, shaking the =
tree
violently, crying aloud to the panther to flee or be killed, and punctuating
his own voice with the screams and mouthings of an angry beast. Presently he raced
toward the opposite side of the tree and off into the jungle, pounding loud=
ly
against the boles of trees as he went, and voicing the panther's diminishing
growls as he drew farther and farther away from the village. A few minutes lat=
er
he returned to the village gate, calling to the natives within. "I have driv=
en
Sheeta away," he said. "=
Now
come and admit me as you promised." For a time there =
was
the sound of excited discussion within the palisade, but at length a half-d=
ozen
warriors came and opened the gates, peering anxiously out in evident trepid=
ation
as to the nature of the creature which they should find waiting there. They were not much relieved at sight of=
an
almost naked white man; but when Tarzan had reassured them in quiet tones,
protesting his friendship for them, they opened the barrier a trifle farther
and admitted him. When the gates had
been once more secured the self-confidence of the savages returned, and as
Tarzan walked up the village street toward the chief's hut he was surrounde=
d by
a host of curious men, women, and children. From the chief he
learned that Rokoff had passed up the river a week previous, and that he had
horns growing from his forehead, and was accompanied by a thousand devils.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Later the chief said that the very bad=
white
man had remained a month in his village.
Chapter 6 - A Hideous Crew
Chapter 7 - Betrayed
Though none of th=
ese
statements agreed with Kaviri's, that the Russian was but three days gone f=
rom
the chieftain's village and that his following was much smaller than now
stated, Tarzan was in no manner surprised at the discrepancies, for he was
quite familiar with the savage mind's strange manner of functioning.
What he was most
interested in knowing was that he was upon the right trail, and that it led
toward the interior. In this
circumstance he knew that Rokoff could never escape him.
After several hou=
rs
of questioning and cross-questioning the ape-man learned that another party=
had
preceded the Russian by several days--three whites--a man, a woman, and a
little man-child, with several Mosulas.
Tarzan explained =
to
the chief that his people would follow him in a canoe, probably the next da=
y,
and that though he might go on ahead of them the chief was to receive them
kindly and have no fear of them, for Mugambi would see that they did not ha=
rm
the chief's people, if they were accorded a friendly reception.
"And now,&qu=
ot;
he concluded, "I shall lie down beneath this tree and sleep. I am very
tired. Permit no one to disturb
me."
The chief offered=
him
a hut, but Tarzan, from past experience of native dwellings, preferred the =
open
air, and, further, he had plans of his own that could be better carried out=
if
he remained beneath the tree. He gave as his reason a desire to be close at
hand should Sheeta return, and after this explanation the chief was very gl=
ad
to permit him to sleep beneath the tree.
Tarzan had always
found that it stood him in good stead to leave with natives the impression =
that
he was to some extent possessed of more or less miraculous powers. He might easily have entered their vill=
age without
recourse to the gates, but he believed that a sudden and unaccountable
disappearance when he was ready to leave them would result in a more lasting
impression upon their childlike minds, and so as soon as the village was qu=
iet
in sleep he rose, and, leaping into the branches of the tree above him, fad=
ed
silently into the black mystery of the jungle night.
All the balance of
that night the ape-man swung rapidly through the upper and middle terraces =
of
the forest. When the going was good
there he preferred the upper branches of the giant trees, for then his way =
was
better lighted by the moon; but so accustomed were all his senses to the gr=
im
world of his birth that it was possible for him, even in the dense, black
shadows near the ground, to move with ease and rapidity. You or I walking beneath the arcs of M=
ain Street,
or Broadway, or State Street, could not have moved more surely or with a te=
nth
the speed of the agile ape-man through the gloomy mazes that would have baf=
fled
us entirely.
At dawn he stoppe=
d to
feed, and then he slept for several hours, taking up the pursuit again towa=
rd
noon.
Twice he came upon
natives, and, though he had considerable difficulty in approaching them, he
succeeded in each instance in quieting both their fears and bellicose
intentions toward him, and learned from them that he was upon the trail of =
the
Russian.
Two days later, s=
till
following up the Ugambi, he came upon a large village. The chief, a wicked-looking fellow with=
the
sharp-filed teeth that often denote the cannibal, received him with apparent
friendliness.
The ape-man was n=
ow
thoroughly fatigued, and had determined to rest for eight or ten hours that=
he
might be fresh and strong when he caught up with Rokoff, as he was sure he =
must
do within a very short time.
The chief told him
that the bearded white man had left his village only the morning before, and
that doubtless he would be able to overtake him in a short time. The other party the chief had not seen =
or
heard of, so he said.
Tarzan did not li=
ke
the appearance or manner of the fellow, who seemed, though friendly enough,=
to
harbour a certain contempt for this half-naked white man who came with no
followers and offered no presents; but he needed the rest and food that the
village would afford him with less effort than the jungle, and so, as he kn=
ew
no fear of man, beast, or devil, he curled himself up in the shadow of a hut
and was soon asleep.
Scarcely had he l= eft the chief than the latter called two of his warriors, to whom he whispered a few instructions. A moment later = the sleek, black bodies were racing along the river path, up-stream, toward the east.<= o:p>
In the village the
chief maintained perfect quiet. He=
would
permit no one to approach the sleeping visitor, nor any singing, nor loud t=
alking. He was remarkably solicitous lest his g=
uest
be disturbed.
Three hours later
several canoes came silently into view from up the Ugambi. They were being pushed ahead rapidly by=
the
brawny muscles of their black crews.
Upon the bank before the river stood the chief, his spear raised in a
horizontal position above his head, as though in some manner of predetermin=
ed
signal to those within the boats.
And such indeed w=
as
the purpose of his attitude--which meant that the white stranger within his
village still slept peacefully.
In the bows of tw=
o of
the canoes were the runners that the chief had sent forth three hours
earlier. It was evident that they =
had
been dispatched to follow and bring back this party, and that the signal fr=
om
the bank was one that had been determined upon before they left the village=
.
In a few moments =
the
dugouts drew up to the verdure-clad bank.
The native warriors filed out, and with them a half-dozen white men.=
Sullen,
ugly-looking customers they were, and none more so than the evil-faced,
black-bearded man who commanded them.
"Where is the
white man your messengers report to be with you?" he asked of the chie=
f.
"This way,
bwana," replied the native.
"Carefully have I kept silence in the village that he might be
still asleep when you returned. I =
do not
know that he is one who seeks you to do you harm, but he questioned me clos=
ely
about your coming and your going, and his appearance is as that of the one =
you
described, but whom you believed safe in the country which you called Jungle
Island.
"Had you not
told me this tale I should not have recognized him, and then he might have =
gone
after and slain you. If he is a f=
riend
and no enemy, then no harm has been done, bwana; but if he proves to be an =
enemy,
I should like very much to have a rifle and some ammunition."
"You have do=
ne
well," replied the white man, "and you shall have the rifle and
ammunition whether he be a friend or enemy, provided that you stand with
me."
"I shall sta=
nd
with you, bwana," said the chief, "and now come and look upon the
stranger, who sleeps within my village."
So saying, he tur=
ned
and led the way toward the hut, in the shadow of which the unconscious Tarz=
an
slept peacefully.
Behind the two men
came the remaining whites and a score of warriors; but the raised forefinge=
rs
of the chief and his companion held them all to perfect silence.
As they turned the
corner of the hut, cautiously and upon tiptoe, an ugly smile touched the li=
ps
of the white as his eyes fell upon the giant figure of the sleeping ape-man=
.
The chief looked =
at
the other inquiringly. The latter =
nodded
his head, to signify that the chief had made no mistake in his suspicions.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Then he turned to those behind him and,
pointing to the sleeping man, motioned for them to seize and bind him.
A moment later a
dozen brutes had leaped upon the surprised Tarzan, and so quickly did they =
work
that he was securely bound before he could make half an effort to escape.
Then they threw h=
im
down upon his back, and as his eyes turned toward the crowd that stood near,
they fell upon the malign face of Nikolas Rokoff.
A sneer curled the
Russian's lips. He stepped quite c=
lose
to Tarzan.
"Pig!" =
he
cried. "Have you not learned
sufficient wisdom to keep away from Nikolas Rokoff?"
Then he kicked the
prostrate man full in the face.
"That for yo=
ur
welcome," he said.
"Tonight, be=
fore
my Ethiop friends eat you, I shall tell you what has already befallen your =
wife
and child, and what further plans I have for their futures."
Through the
luxuriant, tangled vegetation of the Stygian jungle night a great lithe body
made its way sinuously and in utter silence upon its soft padded feet. Only two blazing points of yellow-green=
flame
shone occasionally with the reflected light of the equatorial moon that now=
and
again pierced the softly sighing roof rustling in the night wind.
Occasionally the
beast would stop with high-held nose, sniffing searchingly. At other times a quick, brief incursion=
into
the branches above delayed it momentarily in its steady journey toward the
east. To its sensitive nostrils ca=
me the
subtle unseen spoor of many a tender four-footed creature, bringing the sla=
ver
of hunger to the cruel, drooping jowl.
But steadfastly it
kept on its way, strangely ignoring the cravings of appetite that at another
time would have sent the rolling, fur-clad muscles flying at some soft thro=
at.
All that night the
creature pursued its lonely way, and the next day it halted only to make a
single kill, which it tore to fragments and devoured with sullen, grumbling
rumbles as though half famished for lack of food.
It was dusk when =
it
approached the palisade that surrounded a large native village. Like the shadow of a swift and silent d=
eath
it circled the village, nose to ground, halting at last close to the palisa=
de, where
it almost touched the backs of several huts.
Here the beast sniffed for a moment, and then, turning its head upon=
one
side, listened with up-pricked ears.
What it heard was=
no
sound by the standards of human ears, yet to the highly attuned and delicate
organs of the beast a message seemed to be borne to the savage brain. A wondrous transformation was wrought i=
n the
motionless mass of statuesque bone and muscle that had an instant before st=
ood
as though carved out of the living bronze.
As if it had been
poised upon steel springs, suddenly released, it rose quickly and silently =
to
the top of the palisade, disappearing, stealthily and cat-like, into the da=
rk
space between the wall and the back of an adjacent hut.
In the village st=
reet
beyond women were preparing many little fires and fetching cooking-pots fil=
led
with water, for a great feast was to be celebrated ere the night was many h=
ours
older. About a stout stake near t=
he
centre of the circling fires a little knot of black warriors stood conversi=
ng,
their bodies smeared with white and blue and ochre in broad and grotesque
bands. Great circles of colour we=
re
drawn about their eyes and lips, their breasts and abdomens, and from their=
clay-plastered
coiffures rose gay feathers and bits of long, straight wire.
The village was
preparing for the feast, while in a hut at one side of the scene of the com=
ing
orgy the bound victim of their bestial appetites lay waiting for the end. And such an end!
Tarzan of the Ape=
s,
tensing his mighty muscles, strained at the bonds that pinioned him; but th=
ey
had been re-enforced many times at the instigation of the Russian, so that =
not
even the ape-man's giant brawn could budge them.
Death!
Tarzan had looked=
the
Hideous Hunter in the face many a time, and smiled. And he would smile again tonight when h=
e knew
the end was coming quickly; but now his thoughts were not of himself, but of
those others--the dear ones who must suffer most because of his passing.
Jane would never =
know
the manner of it. For that he than=
ked
Heaven; and he was thankful also that she at least was safe in the heart of=
the
world's greatest city. Safe among =
kind
and loving friends who would do their best to lighten her misery.
But the boy!
Tarzan writhed at=
the
thought of him. His son! And now he--the mighty Lord of the
Jungle--he, Tarzan, King of the Apes, the only one in all the world fitted =
to
find and save the child from the horrors that Rokoff's evil mind had
planned--had been trapped like a silly, dumb creature. He was to die in a few hours, and with =
him
would go the child's last chance of succour.
Rokoff had been i=
n to
see and revile and abuse him several times during the afternoon; but he had
been able to wring no word of remonstrance or murmur of pain from the lips =
of
the giant captive.
So at last he had
given up, reserving his particular bit of exquisite mental torture for the =
last
moment, when, just before the savage spears of the cannibals should for ever
make the object of his hatred immune to further suffering, the Russian plan=
ned
to reveal to his enemy the true whereabouts of his wife whom he thought saf=
e in
England.
Dusk had fallen u=
pon
the village, and the ape-men could hear the preparations going forward for =
the
torture and the feast. The dance =
of
death he could picture in his mind's eye--for he had seen the thing many ti=
mes
in the past. Now he was to be the
central figure, bound to the stake.
The torture of the
slow death as the circling warriors cut him to bits with the fiendish skill,
that mutilated without bringing unconsciousness, had no terrors for him.
As he lay, thinki=
ng
furiously on every possibility of self-salvation, there came to his sensiti=
ve
nostrils a faint and a familiar scent. Instantly every faculty of his mind =
was
upon the alert. Presently his trai=
ned
ears caught the sound of the soundless presence without--behind the hut whe=
rein
he lay. His lips moved, and thoug=
h no
sound came forth that might have been appreciable to a human ear beyond the
walls of his prison, yet he realized that the one beyond would hear. Already he knew who that one was, for h=
is
nostrils had told him as plainly as your eyes or mine tell us of the identi=
ty
of an old friend whom we come upon in broad daylight.
An instant later =
he
heard the soft sound of a fur-clad body and padded feet scaling the outer w=
all
behind the hut and then a tearing at the poles which formed the wall. Presently through the hole thus made s=
lunk a
great beast, pressing its cold muzzle close to his neck.
It was Sheeta, the
panther.
The beast snuffed
round the prostrate man, whining a little.
There was a limit to the interchange of ideas which could take place
between these two, and so Tarzan could not be sure that Sheeta understood a=
ll that
he attempted to communicate to him. That
the man was tied and helpless Sheeta could, of course, see; but that to the
mind of the panther this would carry any suggestion of harm in so far as his
master was concerned, Tarzan could not guess.
What had brought =
the
beast to him? The fact that he had=
come
augured well for what he might accomplish; but when Tarzan tried to get She=
eta to
gnaw his bonds asunder the great animal could not seem to understand what w=
as
expected of him, and, instead, but licked the wrists and arms of the prison=
er.
Presently there c=
ame
an interruption. Some one was
approaching the hut. Sheeta gave a=
low
growl and slunk into the blackness of a far corner. Evidently the visitor did not hear the
warning sound, for almost immediately he entered the hut--a tall, naked, sa=
vage
warrior.
He came to Tarzan=
's
side and pricked him with a spear. From
the lips of the ape-man came a weird, uncanny sound, and in answer to it th=
ere leaped
from the blackness of the hut's farthermost corner a bolt of fur-clad
death. Full upon the breast of the
painted savage the great beast struck, burying sharp talons in the black fl=
esh
and sinking great yellow fangs in the ebon throat.
There was a fearf=
ul
scream of anguish and terror from the black, and mingled with it was the
hideous challenge of the killing panther.
Then came silence--silence except for the rending of bloody flesh and
the crunching of human bones between mighty jaws.
The noise had bro=
ught
sudden quiet to the village without.
Then there came the sound of voices in consultation.
High-pitched,
fear-filled voices, and deep, low tones of authority, as the chief spoke. Tarzan and the panther heard the approa=
ching footsteps
of many men, and then, to Tarzan's surprise, the great cat rose from across=
the
body of its kill, and slunk noiselessly from the hut through the aperture
through which it had entered.
The man heard the
soft scraping of the body as it passed over the top of the palisade, and th=
en
silence. From the opposite side of=
the
hut he heard the savages approaching to investigate.
He had little hope
that Sheeta would return, for had the great cat intended to defend him agai=
nst
all comers it would have remained by his side as it heard the approaching
savages without.
Tarzan knew how
strange were the workings of the brains of the mighty carnivora of the
jungle--how fiendishly fearless they might be in the face of certain death,=
and
again how timid upon the slightest provocation.
There was doubt in his mind that some note of the approaching blacks
vibrating with fear had struck an answering chord in the nervous system of =
the
panther, sending him slinking through the jungle, his tail between his legs=
.
The man
shrugged. Well, what of it? He had expected to die, and, after all,=
what
might Sheeta have done for him other than to maul a couple of his enemies
before a rifle in the hands of one of the whites should have dispatched him=
!
If the cat could =
have
released him! Ah! that would have
resulted in a very different story; but it had proved beyond the understand=
ing
of Sheeta, and now the beast was gone and Tarzan must definitely abandon ho=
pe.
The natives were =
at
the entrance to the hut now, peering fearfully into the dark interior. Two in advance held lighted torches in =
their
left hands and ready spears in their right.
They held back timorously against those behind, who were pushing them
forward.
The shrieks of the
panther's victim, mingled with those of the great cat, had wrought mightily
upon their poor nerves, and now the awful silence of the dark interior seem=
ed
even more terribly ominous than had the frightful screaming.
Presently one of
those who was being forced unwillingly within hit upon a happy scheme for
learning first the precise nature of the danger which menaced him from the
silent interior. With a quick mov=
ement
he flung his lighted torch into the centre of the hut. Instantly all within was illuminated fo=
r a
brief second before the burning brand was dashed out against the earth floo=
r.
There was the fig=
ure
of the white prisoner still securely bound as they had last seen him, and in
the centre of the hut another figure equally as motionless, its throat and
breasts horribly torn and mangled.
The sight that met
the eyes of the foremost savages inspired more terror within their supersti=
tious
breasts than would the presence of Sheeta, for they saw only the result of a
ferocious attack upon one of their fellows.
Not seeing the ca=
use,
their fear-ridden minds were free to attribute the ghastly work to supernat=
ural
causes, and with the thought they turned, screaming, from the hut, bowling =
over
those who stood directly behind them in the exuberance of their terror.
For an hour Tarzan
heard only the murmur of excited voices from the far end of the village.
But in the end it=
was
two of the whites who first entered, carrying torches and guns. Tarzan was not surprised to discover th=
at
neither of them was Rokoff. He wou=
ld
have wagered his soul that no power on earth could have tempted that great
coward to face the unknown menace of the hut.
When the natives =
saw
that the white men were not attacked they, too, crowded into the interior,
their voices hushed with terror as they looked upon the mutilated corpse of
their comrade. The whites tried i=
n vain
to elicit an explanation from Tarzan; but to all their queries he but shook=
his
head, a grim and knowing smile curving his lips.
At last Rokoff ca=
me.
His face grew very
white as his eyes rested upon the bloody thing grinning up at him from the
floor, the face set in a death mask of excruciating horror.
"Come!"=
he
said to the chief. "Let us ge=
t to
work and finish this demon before he has an opportunity to repeat this thing
upon more of your people."
The chief gave or= ders that Tarzan should be lifted and carried to the stake; but it was several minutes before he could prevail upon any of his men to touch the prisoner.<= o:p>
At last, however,
four of the younger warriors dragged Tarzan roughly from the hut, and once
outside the pall of terror seemed lifted from the savage hearts.
A score of howlin= g blacks pushed and buffeted the prisoner down the village street and bound him to t= he post in the centre of the circle of little fires and boiling cooking-pots.<= o:p>
When at last he w=
as
made fast and seemed quite helpless and beyond the faintest hope of succour=
, Rokoff's
shrivelled wart of courage swelled to its usual proportions when danger was=
not
present.
He stepped close =
to
the ape-man, and, seizing a spear from the hands of one of the savages, was=
the
first to prod the helpless victim. A little
stream of blood trickled down the giant's smooth skin from the wound in his
side; but no murmur of pain passed his lips.
The smile of cont=
empt
upon his face seemed to infuriate the Russian. With a volley of oaths he le=
aped
at the helpless captive, beating him upon the face with his clenched fists =
and
kicking him mercilessly about the legs.
Then he raised the
heavy spear to drive it through the mighty heart, and still Tarzan of the A=
pes
smiled contemptuously upon him.
Before Rokoff cou=
ld
drive the weapon home the chief sprang upon him and dragged him away from h=
is
intended victim.
"Stop, white
man!" he cried. "Rob us =
of
this prisoner and our death-dance, and you yourself may have to take his
place."
The threat proved
most effective in keeping the Russian from further assaults upon the prison=
er,
though he continued to stand a little apart and hurl taunts at his enemy. He told Tarzan that he himself was goin=
g to
eat the ape-man's heart. He enlar=
ged
upon the horrors of the future life of Tarzan's son, and intimated that his
vengeance would reach as well to Jane Clayton.
"You think y=
our
wife safe in England," said Rokoff.
"Poor fool! She is eve=
n now
in the hands of one not even of decent birth, and far from the safety of Lo=
ndon
and the protection of her friends. I had
not meant to tell you this until I could bring to you upon Jungle Island pr=
oof
of her fate.
"Now that you
are about to die the most unthinkably horrid death that it is given a white=
man
to die--let this word of the plight of your wife add to the torments that y=
ou
must suffer before the last savage spear-thrust releases you from your
torture."
The dance had
commenced now, and the yells of the circling warriors drowned Rokoff's furt=
her
attempts to distress his victim.
The leaping savag=
es,
the flickering firelight playing upon their painted bodies, circled about t=
he
victim at the stake.
To Tarzan's memory
came a similar scene, when he had rescued D'Arnot from a like predicament at
the last moment before the final spear-thrust should have ended his
sufferings. Who was there now to =
rescue
him? In all the world there was no=
ne
able to save him from the torture and the death.
The thought that
these human fiends would devour him when the dance was done caused him not a
single qualm of horror or disgust. It
did not add to his sufferings as it would have to those of an ordinary whit=
e man,
for all his life Tarzan had seen the beasts of the jungle devour the flesh =
of
their kills.
Had he not himself
battled for the grisly forearm of a great ape at that long-gone Dum-Dum, wh=
en
he had slain the fierce Tublat and won his niche in the respect of the Apes=
of
Kerchak?
The dancers were
leaping more closely to him now. T=
he
spears were commencing to find his body in the first torturing pricks that
prefaced the more serious thrusts.
It would not be l=
ong
now. The ape-man longed for the la=
st
savage lunge that would end his misery.
And then, far out=
in
the mazes of the weird jungle, rose a shrill scream.
For an instant the
dancers paused, and in the silence of the interval there rose from the lips=
of
the fast-bound white man an answering shriek, more fearsome and more terrib=
le
than that of the jungle-beast that had roused it.
For several minut=
es
the blacks hesitated; then, at the urging of Rokoff and their chief, they
leaped in to finish the dance and the victim; but ere ever another spear
touched the brown hide a tawny streak of green-eyed hate and ferocity bound=
ed
from the door of the hut in which Tarzan had been imprisoned, and Sheeta, t=
he
panther, stood snarling beside his master.
For an instant the
blacks and the whites stood transfixed with terror. Their eyes were riveted
upon the bared fangs of the jungle cat.
Only Tarzan of the
Apes saw what else there was emerging from the dark interior of the hut.
From her cabin po=
rt
upon the Kincaid, Jane Clayton had seen her husband rowed to the verdure-cl=
ad
shore of Jungle Island, and then the ship once more proceeded upon its way.=
For several days =
she
saw no one other than Sven Anderssen, the Kincaid's taciturn and repellent
cook. She asked him the name of th=
e shore
upon which her husband had been set.
"Ay tank it =
blow
purty soon purty hard," replied the Swede, and that was all that she c=
ould
get out of him.
She had come to t=
he
conclusion that he spoke no other English, and so she ceased to importune h=
im
for information; but never did she forget to greet him pleasantly or to tha=
nk
him for the hideous, nauseating meals he brought her.
Three days from t=
he
spot where Tarzan had been marooned the Kincaid came to anchor in the mouth=
of
a great river, and presently Rokoff came to Jane Clayton's cabin.
"We have
arrived, my dear," he said, with a sickening leer. "I have come to offer you safety,
liberty, and ease. My heart has be=
en softened
toward you in your suffering, and I would make amends as best I may.
"Your husband
was a brute--you know that best who found him naked in his native jungle,
roaming wild with the savage beasts that were his fellows. Now I am a gentleman, not only born of =
noble
blood, but raised gently as befits a man of quality.
"To you, dear
Jane, I offer the love of a cultured man and association with one of culture
and refinement, which you must have sorely missed in your relations with the
poor ape that through your girlish infatuation you married so
thoughtlessly. I love you, Jane.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> You have but to say the word and no fur=
ther
sorrows shall afflict you--even your baby shall be returned to you
unharmed."
Outside the door =
Sven
Anderssen paused with the noonday meal he had been carrying to Lady
Greystoke. Upon the end of his lon=
g,
stringy neck his little head was cocked to one side, his close-set eyes wer=
e half
closed, his ears, so expressive was his whole attitude of stealthy eavesdro=
pping,
seemed truly to be cocked forward--even his long, yellow, straggly moustache
appeared to assume a sly droop.
As Rokoff closed =
his
appeal, awaiting the reply he invited, the look of surprise upon Jane Clayt=
on's
face turned to one of disgust. She
fairly shuddered in the fellow's face.
"I would not
have been surprised, M. Rokoff,&qu=
ot;
she said, "had you attempted to force me to submit to your evil desire=
s,
but that you should be so fatuous as to believe that I, wife of John Clayto=
n,
would come to you willingly, even to save my life, I should never have imag=
ined.
I have known you for a scoundrel,
M. Rokoff; but until now I had not=
taken
you for a fool."
Rokoff's eyes
narrowed, and the red of mortification flushed out the pallor of his face.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He took a step toward the girl,
threateningly.
"We shall see
who is the fool at last," he hissed, "when I have broken you to my
will and your plebeian Yankee stubbornness has cost you all that you hold
dear--even the life of your baby--for, by the bones of St. Peter, I'll forego all that I had plann=
ed for
the brat and cut its heart out before your very eyes. You'll learn what it means to insult Ni=
kolas
Rokoff."
Jane Clayton turn=
ed
wearily away.
"What is the
use," she said, "of expatiating upon the depths to which your
vengeful nature can sink? You cann=
ot
move me either by threats or deeds. My
baby cannot judge yet for himself, but I, his mother, can foresee that shou=
ld
it have been given him to survive to man's estate he would willingly sacrif=
ice
his life for the honour of his mother. Love him as I do, I would not purcha=
se his
life at such a price. Did I, he w=
ould
execrate my memory to the day of his death."
Rokoff was now
thoroughly angered because of his failure to reduce the girl to terror. He felt only hate for her, but it had c=
ome to
his diseased mind that if he could force her to accede to his demands as the
price of her life and her child's, the cup of his revenge would be filled to
brimming when he could flaunt the wife of Lord Greystoke in the capitals of
Europe as his mistress.
Again he stepped
closer to her. His evil face was
convulsed with rage and desire. Li=
ke a
wild beast he sprang upon her, and with his strong fingers at her throat fo=
rced
her backward upon the berth.
At the same insta=
nt
the door of the cabin opened noisily.
Rokoff leaped to his feet, and, turning, faced the Swede cook.
Into the fellow's
usually foxy eyes had come an expression of utter stupidity. His lower jaw drooped in vacuous
harmony. He busied himself in arr=
anging
Lady Greystoke's meal upon the tiny table at one side of her cabin.
The Russian glare=
d at
him.
"What do you
mean," he cried, "by entering here without permission? Get out!&q=
uot;
The cook turned h=
is
watery blue eyes upon Rokoff and smiled vacuously.
"Ay tank it =
blow
purty soon purty hard," he said, and then he began rearranging the few
dishes upon the little table.
"Get out of
here, or I'll throw you out, you miserable blockhead!" roared Rokoff,
taking a threatening step toward the Swede.
Anderssen continu=
ed
to smile foolishly in his direction, but one ham-like paw slid stealthily to
the handle of the long, slim knife that protruded from the greasy cord
supporting his soiled apron.
Rokoff saw the mo=
ve
and stopped short in his advance. Then
he turned toward Jane Clayton.
"I will give=
you
until tomorrow," he said, "to reconsider your answer to my
offer. All will be sent ashore upo=
n one
pretext or another except you and the child, Paulvitch and myself. Then without interruption you will be =
able
to witness the death of the baby."
He spoke in French
that the cook might not understand the sinister portent of his words. When he had done he banged out of the c=
abin without
another look at the man who had interrupted him in his sorry work.
When he had gone,
Sven Anderssen turned toward Lady Greystoke--the idiotic expression that had
masked his thoughts had fallen away, and in its place was one of craft and
cunning.
"Hay tank Ay=
ban
a fool," he said. "Hay b=
en the
fool. Ay savvy Franch."
Jane Clayton look=
ed
at him in surprise.
"You underst=
ood
all that he said, then?"
Anderssen grinned=
.
"You bat,&qu=
ot;
he said.
"And you hea=
rd
what was going on in here and came to protect me?"
"You bane go=
od
to me," explained the Swede.
"Hay treat me like darty dog.
Ay help you, lady. You yust
vait--Ay help you. Ay ban Vast Coa=
st
lots times."
"But how can=
you
help me, Sven," she asked, "when all these men will be against
us?"
"Ay tank,&qu=
ot;
said Sven Anderssen, "it blow purty soon purty hard," and then he
turned and left the cabin.
Though Jane Clayt=
on
doubted the cook's ability to be of any material service to her, she was
nevertheless deeply grateful to him for what he already had done. The feeling that among these enemies sh=
e had
one friend brought the first ray of comfort that had come to lighten the bu=
rden
of her miserable apprehensions throughout the long voyage of the Kincaid.
She saw no more of
Rokoff that day, nor of any other until Sven came with her evening meal.
However, when he =
was
leaving her cabin a little later with the empty dishes he whispered very lo=
w,
"Leave on your clothes an' roll up your blankets. Ay come back after you purty soon."=
;
He would have sli=
pped
from the room at once, but Jane laid her hand upon his sleeve.
"My baby?&qu=
ot;
she asked. "I cannot go witho=
ut
him."
"You do wot =
Ay
tal you," said Anderssen, scowling.
"Ay ban halpin' you, so don't you gat too fonny."
When he had gone =
Jane
Clayton sank down upon her berth in utter bewilderment. What was she to do? Suspicions as to the intentions of the =
Swede
swarmed her brain. Might she not be
infinitely worse off if she gave herself into his power than she already wa=
s?
No, she could be =
no
worse off in company with the devil himself than with Nikolas Rokoff, for t=
he
devil at least bore the reputation of being a gentleman.
She swore a dozen
times that she would not leave the Kincaid without her baby, and yet she
remained clothed long past her usual hour for retiring, and her blankets we=
re
neatly rolled and bound with stout cord, when about midnight there came a
stealthy scratching upon the panels of her door.
Swiftly she cross=
ed
the room and drew the bolt. Softly=
the
door swung open to admit the muffled figure of the Swede. On one arm he carried a bundle, eviden=
tly
his blankets. His other hand was =
raised
in a gesture commanding silence, a grimy forefinger upon his lips.
He came quite clo=
se
to her.
"Carry
this," he said. "Do not =
make
some noise when you see it. It ban=
your
kid."
Quick hands snatc=
hed
the bundle from the cook, and hungry mother arms folded the sleeping infant=
to
her breast, while hot tears of joy ran down her cheeks and her whole frame
shook with the emotion of the moment.
"Come!"
said Anderssen. "We got no ti=
me to
vaste."
He snatched up her
bundle of blankets, and outside the cabin door his own as well. Then he led her to the ship's side, ste=
adied
her descent of the monkey-ladder, holding the child for her as she climbed =
to
the waiting boat below. A moment l=
ater
he had cut the rope that held the small boat to the steamer's side, and,
bending silently to the muffled oars, was pulling toward the black shadows =
up
the Ugambi River.
Anderssen rowed o=
n as
though quite sure of his ground, and when after half an hour the moon broke
through the clouds there was revealed upon their left the mouth of a tribut=
ary
running into the Ugambi. Up this n=
arrow
channel the Swede turned the prow of the small boat.
Jane Clayton wond=
ered
if the man knew where he was bound. She
did not know that in his capacity as cook he had that day been rowed up thi=
s very
stream to a little village where he had bartered with the natives for such
provisions as they had for sale, and that he had there arranged the details=
of
his plan for the adventure upon which they were now setting forth.
Even though the m=
oon
was full, the surface of the small river was quite dark. The giant trees overhung its narrow ban=
ks,
meeting in a great arch above the centre of the river. Spanish moss dropped from the graceful=
ly
bending limbs, and enormous creepers clambered in riotous profusion from the
ground to the loftiest branch, falling in curving loops almost to the water=
's
placid breast.
Now and then the river's surface would be suddenly broken ahead of them by a huge crocodile, startled by the splashing of the oars, or, snorting and blowing, a family of hippos would dive from a sandy bar to the cool, safe depths of the bottom.<= o:p>
From the dense
jungles upon either side came the weird night cries of the carnivora--the
maniacal voice of the hyena, the coughing grunt of the panther, the deep and
awful roar of the lion. And with t=
hem strange,
uncanny notes that the girl could not ascribe to any particular night
prowler--more terrible because of their mystery.
Huddled in the st=
ern
of the boat she sat with her baby strained close to her bosom, and because =
of
that little tender, helpless thing she was happier tonight than she had been
for many a sorrow-ridden day.
Even though she k=
new
not to what fate she was going, or how soon that fate might overtake her, s=
till
was she happy and thankful for the moment, however brief, that she might pr=
ess
her baby tightly in her arms. She =
could
scarce wait for the coming of the day that she might look again upon the br=
ight
face of her little, black-eyed Jack.
Again and again s=
he
tried to strain her eyes through the blackness of the jungle night to have =
but
a tiny peep at those beloved features, but only the dim outline of the baby
face rewarded her efforts. Then on=
ce more
she would cuddle the warm, little bundle close to her throbbing heart.
It must have been
close to three o'clock in the morning that Anderssen brought the boat's nos=
e to
the shore before a clearing where could be dimly seen in the waning moonlig=
ht a
cluster of native huts encircled by a thorn boma.
At the village ga=
te
they were admitted by a native woman, the wife of the chief whom Anderssen =
had
paid to assist him. She took them=
to
the chief's hut, but Anderssen said that they would sleep without upon the =
ground,
and so, her duty having been completed, she left them to their own devices.=
The Swede, after
explaining in his gruff way that the huts were doubtless filthy and
vermin-ridden, spread Jane's blankets on the ground for her, and at a little
distance unrolled his own and lay down to sleep.
It was some time
before the girl could find a comfortable position upon the hard ground, but=
at
last, the baby in the hollow of her arm, she dropped asleep from utter
exhaustion. When she awoke it was=
broad
daylight.
About her were
clustered a score of curious natives--mostly men, for among the aborigines =
it
is the male who owns this characteristic in its most exaggerated form. Instinctively Jane Clayton drew the ba=
by
more closely to her, though she soon saw that the blacks were far from inte=
nding
her or the child any harm.
In fact, one of t=
hem
offered her a gourd of milk--a filthy, smoke-begrimed gourd, with the ancie=
nt
rind of long-curdled milk caked in layers within its neck; but the spirit of
the giver touched her deeply, and her face lightened for a moment with one =
of
those almost forgotten smiles of radiance that had helped to make her beauty
famous both in Baltimore and London.
She took the gour=
d in
one hand, and rather than cause the giver pain raised it to her lips, though
for the life of her she could scarce restrain the qualm of nausea that surg=
ed
through her as the malodorous thing approached her nostrils.
It was Anderssen =
who
came to her rescue, and taking the gourd from her, drank a portion himself,=
and
then returned it to the native with a gift of blue beads.
The sun was shini=
ng
brightly now, and though the baby still slept, Jane could scarce restrain h=
er
impatient desire to have at least a brief glance at the beloved face. The natives had withdrawn at a command =
from
their chief, who now stood talking with Anderssen, a little apart from her.=
As she debated the
wisdom of risking disturbing the child's slumber by lifting the blanket that
now protected its face from the sun, she noted that the cook conversed with=
the
chief in the language of the Negro.
What a remarkable=
man
the fellow was, indeed! She had th=
ought
him ignorant and stupid but a short day before, and now, within the past tw=
enty-four
hours, she had learned that he spoke not only English but French as well, a=
nd
the primitive dialect of the West Coast.
She had thought h=
im
shifty, cruel, and untrustworthy, yet in so far as she had reason to believ=
e he
had proved himself in every way the contrary since the day before. It scarce seemed credible that he could=
be
serving her from motives purely chivalrous.
There must be something deeper in his intentions and plans than he h=
ad
yet disclosed.
She wondered, and
when she looked at him--at his close-set, shifty eyes and repulsive feature=
s,
she shuddered, for she was convinced that no lofty characteristics could be=
hid
behind so foul an exterior.
As she was thinki=
ng
of these things the while she debated the wisdom of uncovering the baby's f=
ace,
there came a little grunt from the wee bundle in her lap, and then a gurgli=
ng
coo that set her heart in raptures.
The baby was
awake! Now she might feast her eye=
s upon
him.
Quickly she snatc=
hed
the blanket from before the infant's face; Anderssen was looking at her as =
she
did so.
He saw her stagge=
r to
her feet, holding the baby at arm's length from her, her eyes glued in horr=
or
upon the little chubby face and twinkling eyes.
Then he heard her
piteous cry as her knees gave beneath her, and she sank to the ground in a
swoon.
As the warriors,
clustered thick about Tarzan and Sheeta, realized that it was a flesh-and-b=
lood
panther that had interrupted their dance of death, they took heart a trifle,
for in the face of all those circling spears even the mighty Sheeta would be
doomed.
Rokoff was urging=
the
chief to have his spearmen launch their missiles, and the black was upon the
instant of issuing the command, when his eyes strayed beyond Tarzan, follow=
ing
the gaze of the ape-man.
With a yell of te=
rror
the chief turned and fled toward the village gate, and as his people looked=
to
see the cause of his fright, they too took to their heels--for there, lumbe=
ring
down upon them, their huge forms exaggerated by the play of moonlight and c=
amp
fire, came the hideous apes of Akut.
The instant the
natives turned to flee the ape-man's savage cry rang out above the shrieks =
of
the blacks, and in answer to it Sheeta and the apes leaped growling after t=
he
fugitives. Some of the warriors t=
urned to
battle with their enraged antagonists, but before the fiendish ferocity of =
the
fierce beasts they went down to bloody death.
Others were dragg=
ed
down in their flight, and it was not until the village was empty and the la=
st
of the blacks had disappeared into the bush that Tarzan was able to recall =
his
savage pack to his side. Then it w=
as
that he discovered to his chagrin that he could not make one of them, not e=
ven
the comparatively intelligent Akut, understand that he wished to be freed f=
rom
the bonds that held him to the stake.
In time, of cours=
e,
the idea would filter through their thick skulls, but in the meanwhile many
things might happen--the blacks might return in force to regain their villa=
ge;
the whites might readily pick them all off with their rifles from the
surrounding trees; he might even starve to death before the dull-witted apes
realized that he wished them to gnaw through his bonds.
As for Sheeta--the
great cat understood even less than the apes; but yet Tarzan could not but
marvel at the remarkable characteristics this beast had evidenced. That it felt real affection for him the=
re
seemed little doubt, for now that the blacks were disposed of it walked slo=
wly back
and forth about the stake, rubbing its sides against the ape-man's legs and
purring like a contented tabby. Th=
at it
had gone of its own volition to bring the balance of the pack to his rescue,
Tarzan could not doubt. His Sheeta=
was
indeed a jewel among beasts.
Mugambi's absence
worried the ape-man not a little. He
attempted to learn from Akut what had become of the black, fearing that the
beasts, freed from the restraint of Tarzan's presence, might have fallen up=
on the
man and devoured him; but to all his questions the great ape but pointed ba=
ck
in the direction from which they had come out of the jungle.
The night passed =
with
Tarzan still fast bound to the stake, and shortly after dawn his fears were
realized in the discovery of naked black figures moving stealthily just wit=
hin
the edge of the jungle about the village.
The blacks were returning.
With daylight the=
ir
courage would be equal to the demands of a charge upon the handful of beasts
that had routed them from their rightful abodes. The result of the encounter seemed fore=
gone
if the savages could curb their superstitious terror, for against their
overwhelming numbers, their long spears and poisoned arrows, the panther and
the apes could not be expected to survive a really determined attack.
That the blacks w=
ere
preparing for a charge became apparent a few moments later, when they comme=
nced
to show themselves in force upon the edge of the clearing, dancing and jump=
ing
about as they waved their spears and shouted taunts and fierce warcries tow=
ard
the village.
These manoeuvres
Tarzan knew would continue until the blacks had worked themselves into a st=
ate
of hysterical courage sufficient to sustain them for a short charge toward =
the
village, and even though he doubted that they would reach it at the first
attempt, he believed that at the second or the third they would swarm throu=
gh the
gateway, when the outcome could not be aught than the extermination of Tarz=
an's
bold, but unarmed and undisciplined, defenders.
Even as he had
guessed, the first charge carried the howling warriors but a short distance
into the open--a shrill, weird challenge from the ape-man being all that was
necessary to send them scurrying back to the bush. For half an hour they pranced and yelled
their courage to the sticking-point, and again essayed a charge.
This time they ca=
me
quite to the village gate, but when Sheeta and the hideous apes leaped among
them they turned screaming in terror, and again fled to the jungle.
Again was the dan=
cing
and shouting repeated. This time T=
arzan
felt no doubt they would enter the village and complete the work that a han=
dful
of determined white men would have carried to a successful conclusion at the
first attempt.
To have rescue co=
me
so close only to be thwarted because he could not make his poor, savage fri=
ends
understand precisely what he wanted of them was most irritating, but he cou=
ld
not find it in his heart to place blame upon them. They had done their best, and now he w=
as
sure they would doubtless remain to die with him in a fruitless effort to d=
efend
him.
The blacks were
already preparing for the charge. =
A few
individuals had advanced a short distance toward the village and were exhor=
ting
the others to follow them. In a mo=
ment
the whole savage horde would be racing across the clearing.
Tarzan thought on=
ly
of the little child somewhere in this cruel, relentless wilderness. His heart ached for the son that he mig=
ht no longer
seek to save--that and the realization of Jane's suffering were all that
weighed upon his brave spirit in these that he thought his last moments of
life. Succour, all that he could h=
ope
for, had come to him in the instant of his extremity--and failed. There was nothing further for which to =
hope.
The blacks were
half-way across the clearing when Tarzan's attention was attracted by the
actions of one of the apes. The be=
ast
was glaring toward one of the huts.
Tarzan followed his gaze. T=
o his
infinite relief and delight he saw the stalwart form of Mugambi racing towa=
rd him.
The huge black was
panting heavily as though from strenuous physical exertion and nervous
excitement. He rushed to Tarzan's =
side,
and as the first of the savages reached the village gate the native's knife=
severed
the last of the cords that bound Tarzan to the stake.
In the street lay=
the
corpses of the savages that had fallen before the pack the night before.
Fierce and terrib=
le
was the battle that ensued, but at last the savages were routed, more by
terror, perhaps, at sight of a black man and a white fighting in company wi=
th a
panther and the huge fierce apes of Akut, than because of their inability to
overcome the relatively small force that opposed them.
One prisoner fell
into the hands of Tarzan, and him the ape-man questioned in an effort to le=
arn
what had become of Rokoff and his party.
Promised his liberty in return for the information, the black told a=
ll
he knew concerning the movements of the Russian.
It seemed that ea=
rly
in the morning their chief had attempted to prevail upon the whites to retu=
rn
with him to the village and with their guns destroy the ferocious pack that=
had
taken possession of it, but Rokoff appeared to entertain even more fears of=
the
giant white man and his strange companions than even the blacks themselves.=
Upon no conditions
would he consent to returning even within sight of the village. Instead, he took his party hurriedly to=
the
river, where they stole a number of canoes the blacks had hidden there. The last that had been seen of them the=
y had
been paddling strongly up-stream, their porters from Kaviri's village wield=
ing
the blades.
So once more Tarz=
an
of the Apes with his hideous pack took up his search for the ape-man's son =
and
the pursuit of his abductor.
For weary days th=
ey
followed through an almost uninhabited country, only to learn at last that =
they
were upon the wrong trail. The lit=
tle band
had been reduced by three, for three of Akut's apes had fallen in the fight=
ing
at the village. Now, with Akut, t=
here
were five great apes, and Sheeta was there--and Mugambi and Tarzan.
The ape-man no lo=
nger
heard rumors even of the three who had preceded Rokoff--the white man and w=
oman
and the child. Who the man and wom=
an were
he could not guess, but that the child was his was enough to keep him hot u=
pon
the trail. He was sure that Rokoff=
would
be following this trio, and so he felt confident that so long as he could k=
eep
upon the Russian's trail he would be winning so much nearer to the time he =
might
snatch his son from the dangers and horrors that menaced him.
In retracing their
way after losing Rokoff's trail Tarzan picked it up again at a point where =
the
Russian had left the river and taken to the brush in a northerly
direction. He could only account f=
or
this change on the ground that the child had been carried away from the riv=
er
by the two who now had possession of it.
Nowhere along the
way, however, could he gain definite information that might assure him
positively that the child was ahead of him.
Not a single native they questioned had seen or heard of this other
party, though nearly all had had direct experience with the Russian or had =
talked
with others who had.
It was with
difficulty that Tarzan could find means to communicate with the natives, as=
the
moment their eyes fell upon his companions they fled precipitately into the
bush. His only alternative was to =
go
ahead of his pack and waylay an occasional warrior whom he found alone in t=
he jungle.
One day as he was
thus engaged, tracking an unsuspecting savage, he came upon the fellow in t=
he
act of hurling a spear at a wounded white man who crouched in a clump of bu=
sh
at the trail's side. The white was=
one
whom Tarzan had often seen, and whom he recognized at once.
Deep in his memory
was implanted those repulsive features--the close-set eyes, the shifty
expression, the drooping yellow moustache.
Instantly it occu=
rred
to the ape-man that this fellow had not been among those who had accompanied
Rokoff at the village where Tarzan had been a prisoner. He had seen them all, and this fellow h=
ad not
been there. There could be but one
explanation--he it was who had fled ahead of the Russian with the woman and=
the
child--and the woman had been Jane Clayton.
He was sure now of the meaning of Rokoff's words.
The ape-man's face
went white as he looked upon the pasty, vice-marked countenance of the
Swede. Across Tarzan's forehead st=
ood
out the broad band of scarlet that marked the scar where, years before, Ter=
koz
had torn a great strip of the ape-man's scalp from his skull in the fierce =
battle
in which Tarzan had sustained his fitness to the kingship of the apes of
Kerchak.
The man was his
prey--the black should not have him, and with the thought he leaped upon the
warrior, striking down the spear before it could reach its mark. The black, whipping out his knife, turn=
ed to
do battle with this new enemy, while the Swede, lying in the bush, witnesse=
d a
duel, the like of which he had never dreamed to see--a half-naked white man
battling with a half-naked black, hand to hand with the crude weapons of
primeval man at first, and then with hands and teeth like the primordial br=
utes
from whose loins their forebears sprung.
For a time Anders=
sen
did not recognize the white, and when at last it dawned upon him that he had
seen this giant before, his eyes went wide in surprise that this growling,
rending beast could ever have been the well-groomed English gentleman who h=
ad
been a prisoner aboard the Kincaid.
An English
nobleman! He had learned the ident=
ity of
the Kincaid's prisoners from Lady Greystoke during their flight up the Ugam=
bi. Before,
in common with the other members of the crew of the steamer, he had not kno=
wn
who the two might be.
The fight was
over. Tarzan had been compelled to=
kill
his antagonist, as the fellow would not surrender.
The Swede saw the
white man leap to his feet beside the corpse of his foe, and placing one fo=
ot
upon the broken neck lift his voice in the hideous challenge of the victori=
ous
bull-ape.
Anderssen
shuddered. Then Tarzan turned towa=
rd
him. His face was cold and cruel, =
and in
the grey eyes the Swede read murder.
"Where is my
wife?" growled the ape-man.
"Where is the child?"
Anderssen tried to
reply, but a sudden fit of coughing choked him. There was an arrow entirely
through his chest, and as he coughed the blood from his wounded lung poured
suddenly from his mouth and nostrils.
Tarzan stood wait=
ing
for the paroxysm to pass. Like a b=
ronze image--cold,
hard, and relentless--he stood over the helpless man, waiting to wring such
information from him as he needed, and then to kill.
Presently the
coughing and haemorrhage ceased, and again the wounded man tried to speak.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Tarzan knelt near the faintly moving li=
ps.
"The wife and
child!" he repeated. "Wh=
ere
are they?"
Anderssen pointed=
up
the trail.
"The Russian=
--he
got them," he whispered.
"How did you
come here?" continued Tarzan.
"Why are you not with Rokoff?"
"They catch
us," replied Anderssen, in a voice so low that the ape-man could just
distinguish the words. "They=
catch
us. Ay fight, but my men they all =
run away. Then they get me when Ay ban vounded.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Rokoff he say leave me here for the
hyenas. That vas vorse than to
kill. He tak your vife and kid.&q=
uot;
"What were y=
ou
doing with them--where were you taking them?" asked Tarzan, and then
fiercely, leaping close to the fellow with fierce eyes blazing with the pas=
sion
of hate and vengeance that he had with difficulty controlled, "What ha=
rm
did you do to my wife or child? Speak quick before I kill you! Make your peace with God! Tell me the worst, or I will tear you to
pieces with my hands and teeth. Yo=
u have
seen that I can do it!"
A look of wide-ey=
ed
surprise overspread Anderssen's face.
"Why," =
he
whispered, "Ay did not hurt them.
Ay tried to save them from that Russian.
Your vife was kind to me on the Kincaid, and Ay hear that little baby
cry sometimes. Ay got a vife an' =
kid
for my own by Christiania an' Ay couldn't bear for to see them separated an=
' in
Rokoff's hands any more. That vas
all. Do Ay look like Ay ban here t=
o hurt
them?" he continued after a pause, pointing to the arrow protruding fr=
om
his breast.
There was somethi=
ng
in the man's tone and expression that convinced Tarzan of the truth of his
assertions. More weighty than anyt=
hing
else was the fact that Anderssen evidently seemed more hurt than frightened=
. He
knew he was going to die, so Tarzan's threats had little effect upon him; b=
ut
it was quite apparent that he wished the Englishman to know the truth and n=
ot
to wrong him by harbouring the belief that his words and manner indicated t=
hat
he had entertained.
The ape-man insta=
ntly
dropped to his knees beside the Swede.
"I am
sorry," he said very simply.
"I had looked for none but knaves in company with Rokoff. I see that I was wrong. That is past now, and we will drop it =
for
the more important matter of getting you to a place of comfort and looking
after your wounds. We must have yo=
u on your
feet again as soon as possible."
The Swede, smilin=
g,
shook his head.
"You go on a=
n'
look for the vife an' kid," he said.
"Ay ban as gude as dead already; but"--he hesitated--"=
;Ay
hate to think of the hyenas. Von't you finish up this job?"
Tarzan
shuddered. A moment ago he had bee=
n upon
the point of killing this man. Now=
he
could no more have taken his life than he could have taken the life of any =
of
his best friends.
He lifted the Swe=
de's
head in his arms to change and ease his position.
Again came a fit =
of
coughing and the terrible haemorrhage.
After it was over Anderssen lay with closed eyes.
Tarzan thought th=
at
he was dead, until he suddenly raised his eyes to those of the ape-man, sig=
hed,
and spoke--in a very low, weak whisper.
"Ay tank it =
blow
purty soon purty hard!" he said, and died.
Tarzan scooped a
shallow grave for the Kincaid's cook, beneath whose repulsive exterior had
beaten the heart of a chivalrous gentleman. That was all he could do in the
cruel jungle for the man who had given his life in the service of his little
son and his wife.
Then Tarzan took =
up
again the pursuit of Rokoff. Now t=
hat he
was positive that the woman ahead of him was indeed Jane, and that she had =
again
fallen into the hands of the Russian, it seemed that with all the incredible
speed of his fleet and agile muscles he moved at but a snail's pace.
It was with
difficulty that he kept the trail, for there were many paths through the ju=
ngle
at this point--crossing and crisscrossing, forking and branching in all
directions, and over them all had passed natives innumerable, coming and
going. The spoor of the white men=
was obliterated
by that of the native carriers who had followed them, and over all was the
spoor of other natives and of wild beasts.
It was most
perplexing; yet Tarzan kept on assiduously, checking his sense of sight aga=
inst
his sense of smell, that he might more surely keep to the right trail. But, with all his care, night found him=
at a point
where he was positive that he was on the wrong trail entirely.
He knew that the =
pack
would follow his spoor, and so he had been careful to make it as distinct as
possible, brushing often against the vines and creepers that walled the
jungle-path, and in other ways leaving his scent-spoor plainly discernible.=
As darkness settl=
ed a
heavy rain set in, and there was nothing for the baffled ape-man to do but =
wait
in the partial shelter of a huge tree until morning; but the coming of dawn
brought no cessation of the torrential downpour.
For a week the sun
was obscured by heavy clouds, while violent rain and wind storms obliterated
the last remnants of the spoor Tarzan constantly though vainly sought.
During all this t=
ime
he saw no signs of natives, nor of his own pack, the members of which he fe=
ared
had lost his trail during the terrific storm.
As the country was strange to him, he had been unable to judge his
course accurately, since he had had neither sun by day nor moon nor stars by
night to guide him.
When the sun at l=
ast
broke through the clouds in the fore-noon of the seventh day, it looked down
upon an almost frantic ape-man.
For the first tim=
e in
his life, Tarzan of the Apes had been lost in the jungle. That the experience should have befalle=
n him
at such a time seemed cruel beyond expression.
Somewhere in this savage land his wife and son lay in the clutches of
the arch-fiend Rokoff.
What hideous tria=
ls
might they not have undergone during those seven awful days that nature had
thwarted him in his endeavours to locate them?
Tarzan knew the Russian, in whose power they were, so well that he c=
ould
not doubt but that the man, filled with rage that Jane had once escaped him,
and knowing that Tarzan might be close upon his trail, would wreak without
further loss of time whatever vengeance his polluted mind might be able to
conceive.
But now that the =
sun
shone once more, the ape-man was still at a loss as to what direction to
take. He knew that Rokoff had left=
the
river in pursuit of Anderssen, but whether he would continue inland or retu=
rn to
the Ugambi was a question.
The ape-man had s=
een
that the river at the point he had left it was growing narrow and swift, so
that he judged that it could not be navigable even for canoes to any great
distance farther toward its source.
However, if Rokoff had not returned to the river, in what direction =
had
he proceeded?
From the directio=
n of
Anderssen's flight with Jane and the child Tarzan was convinced that the man
had purposed attempting the tremendous feat of crossing the continent to
Zanzibar; but whether Rokoff would dare so dangerous a journey or not was a
question.
Fear might drive =
him
to the attempt now that he knew the manner of horrible pack that was upon h=
is
trail, and that Tarzan of the Apes was following him to wreak upon him the
vengeance that he deserved.
At last the ape-m=
an
determined to continue toward the northeast in the general direction of Ger=
man
East Africa until he came upon natives from whom he might gain information =
as
to Rokoff's whereabouts.
The second day
following the cessation of the rain Tarzan came upon a native village the
inhabitants of which fled into the bush the instant their eyes fell upon
him. Tarzan, not to be thwarted in=
any
such manner as this, pursued them, and after a brief chase caught up with a=
young
warrior. The fellow was so badly
frightened that he was unable to defend himself, dropping his weapons and
falling upon the ground, wide-eyed and screaming as he gazed on his captor.=
It was with
considerable difficulty that the ape-man quieted the fellow's fears
sufficiently to obtain a coherent statement from him as to the cause of his
uncalled-for terror.
From him Tarzan
learned, by dint of much coaxing, that a party of whites had passed through=
the
village several days before. These=
men had
told them of a terrible white devil that pursued them, warning the natives
against it and the frightful pack of demons that accompanied it.
The black had
recognized Tarzan as the white devil from the descriptions given by the whi=
tes
and their black servants. Behind =
him he
had expected to see a horde of demons disguised as apes and panthers.
In this Tarzan saw
the cunning hand of Rokoff. The Ru=
ssian
was attempting to make travel as difficult as possible for him by turning t=
he
natives against him in superstitious fear.
The native further
told Tarzan that the white man who had led the recent expedition had promis=
ed
them a fabulous reward if they would kill the white devil. This they had fully intended doing shou=
ld the
opportunity present itself; but the moment they had seen Tarzan their blood=
had
turned to water, as the porters of the white men had told them would be the
case.
Finding the ape-m=
an
made no attempt to harm him, the native at last recovered his grasp upon his
courage, and, at Tarzan's suggestion, accompanied the white devil back to t=
he
village, calling as he went for his fellows to return also, as "the wh=
ite
devil has promised to do you no harm if you come back right away and answer=
his
questions."
One by one the bl=
acks
straggled into the village, but that their fears were not entirely allayed =
was
evident from the amount of white that showed about the eyes of the majority=
of
them as they cast constant and apprehensive sidelong glances at the ape-man=
.
The chief was amo=
ng
the first to return to the village, and as it was he that Tarzan was most
anxious to interview, he lost no time in entering into a palaver with the
black.
The fellow was sh=
ort
and stout, with an unusually low and degraded countenance and apelike
arms. His whole expression denoted=
deceitfulness.
Only the
superstitious terror engendered in him by the stories poured into his ears =
by
the whites and blacks of the Russian's party kept him from leaping upon Tar=
zan
with his warriors and slaying him forthwith, for he and his people were
inveterate maneaters. But the fear=
that
he might indeed be a devil, and that out there in the jungle behind him his
fierce demons waited to do his bidding, kept M'ganwazam from putting his
desires into action.
Tarzan questioned=
the
fellow closely, and by comparing his statements with those of the young war=
rior
he had first talked with he learned that Rokoff and his safari were in
terror-stricken retreat in the direction of the far East Coast.
Many of the Russi=
an's
porters had already deserted him. In
that very village he had hanged five for theft and attempted desertion. Judging, however, from what the Waganwa=
zam
had learned from those of the Russian's blacks who were not too far gone in
terror of the brutal Rokoff to fear even to speak of their plans, it was
apparent that he would not travel any great distance before the last of his
porters, cooks, tent-boys, gun-bearers, askari, and even his headman, would
have turned back into the bush, leaving him to the mercy of the merciless j=
ungle.
M'ganwazam denied
that there had been any white woman or child with the party of whites; but =
even
as he spoke Tarzan was convinced that he lied.
Several times the ape-man approached the subject from different angl=
es,
but never was he successful in surprising the wily cannibal into a direct
contradiction of his original statement that there had been no women or
children with the party.
Tarzan demanded f=
ood
of the chief, and after considerable haggling on the part of the monarch
succeeded in obtaining a meal. He =
then
tried to draw out others of the tribe, especially the young man whom he had=
captured
in the bush, but M'ganwazam's presence sealed their lips.
At last, convinced
that these people knew a great deal more than they had told him concerning =
the
whereabouts of the Russian and the fate of Jane and the child, Tarzan
determined to remain overnight among them in the hope of discovering someth=
ing
further of importance.
When he had stated
his decision to the chief he was rather surprised to note the sudden change=
in
the fellow's attitude toward him. =
From apparent
dislike and suspicion M'ganwazam became a most eager and solicitous host.
Nothing would do =
but
that the ape-man should occupy the best hut in the village, from which
M'ganwazam's oldest wife was forthwith summarily ejected, while the chief t=
ook
up his temporary abode in the hut of one of his younger consorts.
Had Tarzan chance=
d to
recall the fact that a princely reward had been offered the blacks if they
should succeed in killing him, he might have more quickly interpreted
M'ganwazam's sudden change in front.
To have the white
giant sleeping peacefully in one of his own huts would greatly facilitate t=
he
matter of earning the reward, and so the chief was urgent in his suggestions
that Tarzan, doubtless being very much fatigued after his travels, should
retire early to the comforts of the anything but inviting palace.
As much as the
ape-man detested the thought of sleeping within a native hut, he had determ=
ined
to do so this night, on the chance that he might be able to induce one of t=
he
younger men to sit and chat with him before the fire that burned in the cen=
tre
of the smoke-filled dwelling, and from him draw the truths he sought. So Tarzan accepted the invitation of old
M'ganwazam, insisting, however, that he much preferred sharing a hut with s=
ome
of the younger men rather than driving the chief's old wife out in the cold=
.
The toothless old=
hag
grinned her appreciation of this suggestion, and as the plan still better
suited the chief's scheme, in that it would permit him to surround Tarzan w=
ith
a gang of picked assassins, he readily assented, so that presently Tarzan h=
ad
been installed in a hut close to the village gate.
As there was to b=
e a
dance that night in honour of a band of recently returned hunters, Tarzan w=
as
left alone in the hut, the young men, as M'ganwazam explained, having to ta=
ke
part in the festivities.
As soon as the
ape-man was safely installed in the trap, M'Ganwazam called about him the y=
oung
warriors whom he had selected to spend the night with the white devil!
None of them was
overly enthusiastic about the plan, since deep in their superstitious hearts
lay an exaggerated fear of the strange white giant; but the word of M'ganwa=
zam
was law among his people, so not one dared refuse the duty he was called up=
on
to perform.
As M'ganwazam
unfolded his plan in whispers to the savages squatting about him the old,
toothless hag, to whom Tarzan had saved her hut for the night, hovered abou=
t the
conspirators ostensibly to replenish the supply of firewood for the blaze a=
bout
which the men sat, but really to drink in as much of their conversation as
possible.
Tarzan had slept =
for
perhaps an hour or two despite the savage din of the revellers when his keen
senses came suddenly alert to a suspiciously stealthy movement in the hut in
which he lay. The fire had died do=
wn to
a little heap of glowing embers, which accentuated rather than relieved the
darkness that shrouded the interior of the evil-smelling dwelling, yet the
trained senses of the ape-man warned him of another presence creeping almost
silently toward him through the gloom.
He doubted that it
was one of his hut mates returning from the festivities, for he still heard=
the
wild cries of the dancers and the din of the tom-toms in the village street
without. Who could it be that too=
k such
pains to conceal his approach?
As the presence c=
ame
within reach of him the ape-man bounded lightly to the opposite side of the
hut, his spear poised ready at his side.
"Who is
it," he asked, "that creeps upon Tarzan of the Apes, like a hungry
lion out of the darkness?"
"Silence,
bwana!" replied an old cracked voice.
"It is Tambudza--she whose hut you would not take, and thus dri=
ve
an old woman out into the cold night."
"What does
Tambudza want of Tarzan of the Apes?" asked the ape-man.
"You were ki=
nd
to me to whom none is now kind, and I have come to warn you in payment of y=
our
kindness," answered the old hag.
"Warn me of
what?"
"M'ganwazam =
has
chosen the young men who are to sleep in the hut with you," replied
Tambudza. "I was near as he t=
alked
with them, and heard him issuing his instructions to them. When the dance is run well into the mo=
rning
they are to come to the hut.
"If you are
awake they are to pretend that they have come to sleep, but if you sleep it=
is
M'ganwazam's command that you be killed.
If you are not then asleep they will wait quietly beside you until y=
ou
do sleep, and then they will all fall upon you together and slay you. M'ganwazam is determined to win the rew=
ard
the white man has offered."
"I had forgo=
tten
the reward," said Tarzan, half to himself, and then he added, "How
may M'ganwazam hope to collect the reward now that the white men who are my
enemies have left his country and gone he knows not where?"
"Oh, they ha=
ve
not gone far," replied Tambudza.
"M'ganwazam knows where they camp.
His runners could quickly overtake them--they move slowly."
"Where are
they?" asked Tarzan.
"Do you wish=
to
come to them?" asked Tambudza in way of reply.
Tarzan nodded.
"I cannot te=
ll
you where they lie so that you could come to the place yourself, but I could
lead you to them, bwana."
In their interest=
in
the conversation neither of the speakers had noticed the little figure which
crept into the darkness of the hut behind them, nor did they see it when it
slunk noiselessly out again.
It was little
Buulaoo, the chief's son by one of his younger wives--a vindictive, degener=
ate
little rascal who hated Tambudza, and was ever seeking opportunities to spy
upon her and report her slightest breach of custom to his father.
"Come,
then," said Tarzan quickly, "let us be on our way."
This Buulaoo did =
not
hear, for he was already legging it up the village street to where his hide=
ous
sire guzzled native beer, and watched the evolutions of the frantic dancers
leaping high in the air and cavorting wildly in their hysterical capers.
So it happened th=
at
as Tarzan and Tambudza sneaked warily from the village and melted into the
Stygian darkness of the jungle two lithe runners took their way in the same
direction, though by another trail.
When they had come
sufficiently far from the village to make it safe for them to speak above a
whisper, Tarzan asked the old woman if she had seen aught of a white woman =
and
a little child.
"Yes,
bwana," replied Tambudza, "there was a woman with them and a litt=
le
child--a little white piccaninny. It
died here in our village of the fever and they buried it!"
When Jane Clayton
regained consciousness she saw Anderssen standing over her, holding the bab=
y in
his arms. As her eyes rested upon =
them an
expression of misery and horror overspread her countenance.
"What is the
matter?" he asked. "You =
ban
sick?"
"Where is my
baby?" she cried, ignoring his questions.
Anderssen held out
the chubby infant, but she shook her head.
"It is not
mine," she said. "You kn=
ew
that it was not mine. You are a d=
evil
like the Russian."
Anderssen's blue =
eyes
stretched in surprise.
"Not
yours!" he exclaimed. "Y=
ou
tole me the kid aboard the Kincaid ban your kid."
"Not this
one," replied Jane dully. &qu=
ot;The
other. Where is the other? There m=
ust
have been two. I did not know abou=
t this
one."
"There vasn'=
t no
other kid. Ay tank this ban yours.=
Ay am very sorry."
Anderssen fidgeted
about, standing first on one foot and then upon the other. It was perfectly evident to Jane that h=
e was
honest in his protestations of ignorance of the true identity of the child.=
Presently the baby
commenced to crow, and bounce up and down in the Swede's arms, at the same =
time
leaning forward with little hands out-reaching toward the young woman.
She could not
withstand the appeal, and with a low cry she sprang to her feet and gathered
the baby to her breast.
For a few minutes=
she
wept silently, her face buried in the baby's soiled little dress. The first shock of disappointment that =
the
tiny thing had not been her beloved Jack was giving way to a great hope tha=
t after
all some miracle had occurred to snatch her baby from Rokoff's hands at the
last instant before the Kincaid sailed from England.
Then, too, there =
was
the mute appeal of this wee waif alone and unloved in the midst of the horr=
ors
of the savage jungle. It was this
thought more than any other that had sent her mother's heart out to the inn=
ocent
babe, while still she suffered from disappointment that she had been deceiv=
ed
in its identity.
"Have you no
idea whose child this is?" she asked Anderssen.
The man shook his
head.
"Not now,&qu=
ot;
he said. "If he ain't ban you=
r kid,
Ay don' know whose kid he do ban. =
Rokoff
said it was yours. Ay tank he tank=
so,
too.
"What do we =
do
with it now? Ay can't go back to t=
he
Kincaid. Rokoff would have me sho=
t; but
you can go back. Ay take you to th=
e sea,
and then some of these black men they take you to the ship--eh?"
"No! no!&quo=
t;
cried Jane. "Not for the
world. I would rather die than fal=
l into
the hands of that man again. No, l=
et us
go on and take this poor little creature with us. If God is willing we shall be saved in =
one
way or another."
So they again too=
k up
their flight through the wilderness, taking with them a half-dozen of the
Mosulas to carry provisions and the tents that Anderssen had smuggled aboard
the small boat in preparation for the attempted escape.
The days and nigh=
ts
of torture that the young woman suffered were so merged into one long, unbr=
oken
nightmare of hideousness that she soon lost all track of time. Whether they had been wandering for day=
s or years
she could not tell. The one brigh=
t spot
in that eternity of fear and suffering was the little child whose tiny hands
had long since fastened their softly groping fingers firmly about her heart=
.
In a way the litt=
le
thing took the place and filled the aching void that the theft of her own b=
aby
had left. It could never be the sa=
me, of
course, but yet, day by day, she found her mother-love, enveloping the waif
more closely until she sometimes sat with closed eyes lost in the sweet
imagining that the little bundle of humanity at her breast was truly her ow=
n.
For some time the=
ir
progress inland was extremely slow.
Word came to them from time to time through natives passing from the
coast on hunting excursions that Rokoff had not yet guessed the direction o=
f their
flight. This, and the desire to ma=
ke the
journey as light as possible for the gently bred woman, kept Anderssen to a
slow advance of short and easy marches with many rests.
The Swede insisted
upon carrying the child while they travelled, and in countless other ways d=
id
what he could to help Jane Clayton conserve her strength. He had been terribly chagrined on disco=
vering
the mistake he had made in the identity of the baby, but once the young wom=
an
became convinced that his motives were truly chivalrous she would not permit
him longer to upbraid himself for the error that he could not by any means =
have
avoided.
At the close of e=
ach
day's march Anderssen saw to the erection of a comfortable shelter for Jane=
and
the child. Her tent was always pi=
tched
in the most favourable location. =
The
thorn boma round it was the strongest and most impregnable that the Mosula
could construct.
Her food was the =
best
that their limited stores and the rifle of the Swede could provide, but the
thing that touched her heart the closest was the gentle consideration and
courtesy which the man always accorded her.
That such nobilit=
y of
character could lie beneath so repulsive an exterior never ceased to be a
source of wonder and amazement to her, until at last the innate chivalry of=
the
man, and his unfailing kindliness and sympathy transformed his appearance i=
n so
far as Jane was concerned until she saw only the sweetness of his character=
mirrored
in his countenance.
They had commence=
d to
make a little better progress when word reached them that Rokoff was but a =
few
marches behind them, and that he had at last discovered the direction of th=
eir
flight. It was then that Anderssen=
took
to the river, purchasing a canoe from a chief whose village lay a short
distance from the Ugambi upon the bank of a tributary.
Thereafter the li=
ttle
party of fugitives fled up the broad Ugambi, and so rapid had their flight
become that they no longer received word of their pursuers. At the end of canoe navigation upon the
river, they abandoned their canoe and took to the jungle. Here progress became at once arduous, s=
low,
and dangerous.
The second day af=
ter
leaving the Ugambi the baby fell ill with fever. Anderssen knew what the
outcome must be, but he had not the heart to tell Jane Clayton the truth, f=
or
he had seen that the young woman had come to love the child almost as passi=
onately
as though it had been her own flesh and blood.
As the baby's
condition precluded farther advance, Anderssen withdrew a little from the m=
ain
trail he had been following and built a camp in a natural clearing on the b=
ank
of a little river.
Here Jane devoted=
her
every moment to caring for the tiny sufferer, and as though her sorrow and
anxiety were not all that she could bear, a further blow came with the sudd=
en
announcement of one of the Mosula porters who had been foraging in the jung=
le
adjacent that Rokoff and his party were camped quite close to them, and were
evidently upon their trail to this little nook which all had thought so
excellent a hiding-place.
This information
could mean but one thing, and that they must break camp and fly onward
regardless of the baby's condition.
Jane Clayton knew the traits of the Russian well enough to be positi=
ve
that he would separate her from the child the moment that he recaptured the=
m,
and she knew that separation would mean the immediate death of the baby.
As they stumbled
forward through the tangled vegetation along an old and almost overgrown ga=
me
trail the Mosula porters deserted them one by one.
The men had been
staunch enough in their devotion and loyalty as long as they were in no dan=
ger
of being overtaken by the Russian and his party. They had heard, however, so much of the
atrocious disposition of Rokoff that they had grown to hold him in mortal
terror, and now that they knew he was close upon them their timid hearts wo=
uld
fortify them no longer, and as quickly as possible they deserted the three =
whites.
Yet on and on went
Anderssen and the girl. The Swede =
went
ahead, to hew a way through the brush where the path was entirely overgrown=
, so
that on this march it was necessary that the young woman carry the child.
All day they
marched. Late in the afternoon they
realized that they had failed. Clo=
se
behind them they heard the noise of a large safari advancing along the trail
which they had cleared for their pursuers.
When it became qu=
ite
evident that they must be overtaken in a short time Anderssen hid Jane behi=
nd a
large tree, covering her and the child with brush.
"There is a
village about a mile farther on," he said to her. "The Mosula told me its location =
before
they deserted us. Ay try to lead =
the Russian
off your trail, then you go on to the village.
Ay tank the chief ban friendly to white men--the Mosula tal me he
ban. Anyhow, that was all we can d=
o.
"After while=
you
get chief to tak you down by the Mosula village at the sea again, an' after=
a
while a ship is sure to put into the mouth of the Ugambi. Then you be all right. Gude-by an' gude luck to you, lady!&quo=
t;
"But where a= re you going, Sven?" asked Jane. "Why can't you hide here and go back to the sea with me?"<= o:p>
"Ay gotta tal
the Russian you ban dead, so that he don't luke for you no more," and
Anderssen grinned.
"Why can't y=
ou
join me then after you have told him that?" insisted the girl.
Anderssen shook h=
is
head.
"Ay don't ta=
nk
Ay join anybody any more after Ay tal the Russian you ban dead," he sa=
id.
"You don't m=
ean
that you think he will kill you?" asked Jane, and yet in her heart she
knew that that was exactly what the great scoundrel would do in revenge for=
his
having been thwarted by the Swede. Anderssen did not reply, other than to w=
arn
her to silence and point toward the path along which they had just come.
"I don't
care," whispered Jane Clayton.
"I shall not let you die to save me if I can prevent it in any
way. Give me your revolver. I can use that, and together we may be =
able
to hold them off until we can find some means of escape."
"It won't wo=
rk,
lady," replied Anderssen.
"They would only get us both, and then Ay couldn't do you no go=
od
at all. Think of the kid, lady, a=
nd
what it would be for you both to fall into Rokoff's hands again. For his sake you must do what Ay say. Here, take my rifle and ammunition; you=
may
need them."
He shoved the gun=
and
bandoleer into the shelter beside Jane.
Then he was gone.
She watched him a=
s he
returned along the path to meet the oncoming safari of the Russian. Soon a turn in the trail hid him from v=
iew.
Her first impulse=
was
to follow. With the rifle she migh=
t be
of assistance to him, and, further, she could not bear the terrible thought=
of
being left alone at the mercy of the fearful jungle without a single friend=
to
aid her.
She started to cr=
awl
from her shelter with the intention of running after Anderssen as fast as s=
he
could. As she drew the baby close =
to her
she glanced down into its little face.
How red it was! How unnatural the little thing looked.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> She raised the cheek to hers. It was fiery hot with fever!
With a little gas=
p of
terror Jane Clayton rose to her feet in the jungle path. The rifle and bandoleer lay forgotten i=
n the
shelter beside her. Anderssen was
forgotten, and Rokoff, and her great peril.
All that rioted
through her fear-mad brain was the fearful fact that this little, helpless
child was stricken with the terrible jungle-fever, and that she was helples=
s to
do aught to allay its sufferings--sufferings that were sure to come during
ensuing intervals of partial consciousness.
Her one thought w=
as
to find some one who could help her--some woman who had had children of her
own--and with the thought came recollection of the friendly village of which
Anderssen had spoken. If she could=
but reach
it--in time!
There was no time=
to
be lost. Like a startled antelope =
she
turned and fled up the trail in the direction Anderssen had indicated.
From far behind c=
ame
the sudden shouting of men, the sound of shots, and then silence. She knew that Anderssen had met the Rus=
sian.
A half-hour later=
she
stumbled, exhausted, into a little thatched village. Instantly she was surrounded by men, wo=
men,
and children. Eager, curious, excited natives plied her with a hundred
questions, no one of which she could understand or answer.
All that she coul=
d do
was to point tearfully at the baby, now wailing piteously in her arms, and
repeat over and over, "Fever--fever--fever."
The blacks did not
understand her words, but they saw the cause of her trouble, and soon a you=
ng
woman had pulled her into a hut and with several others was doing her poor =
best
to quiet the child and allay its agony.
The witch doctor =
came
and built a little fire before the infant, upon which he boiled some strange
concoction in a small earthen pot, making weird passes above it and mumbling
strange, monotonous chants. Presently he dipped a zebra's tail into the bre=
w,
and with further mutterings and incantations sprinkled a few drops of the
liquid over the baby's face.
After he had gone the women sat about and
moaned and wailed until Jane thought that she should go mad; but, knowing t=
hat
they were doing it all out of the kindness of their hearts, she endured the
frightful waking nightmare of those awful hours in dumb and patient sufferi=
ng.
It must have been
well toward midnight that she became conscious of a sudden commotion in the
village. She heard the voices of t=
he
natives raised in controversy, but she could not understand the words.
Presently she hea=
rd
footsteps approaching the hut in which she squatted before a bright fire wi=
th
the baby on her lap. The little t=
hing
lay very still now, its lids, half-raised, showed the pupils horribly uptur=
ned.
Jane Clayton look=
ed
into the little face with fear-haunted eyes.
It was not her baby--not her flesh and blood--but how close, how dear
the tiny, helpless thing had become to her.
Her heart, bereft of its own, had gone out to this poor, little,
nameless waif, and lavished upon it all the love that had been denied her
during the long, bitter weeks of her captivity aboard the Kincaid.
She saw that the =
end
was near, and though she was terrified at contemplation of her loss, still =
she
hoped that it would come quickly now and end the sufferings of the little
victim.
The footsteps she=
had
heard without the hut now halted before the door. There was a whispered
colloquy, and a moment later M'ganwazam, chief of the tribe, entered. She had seen but little of him, as the =
women
had taken her in hand almost as soon as she had entered the village.
M'ganwazam, she n=
ow
saw, was an evil-appearing savage with every mark of brutal degeneracy writ
large upon his bestial countenance. To
Jane Clayton he looked more gorilla than human.
He tried to converse with her, but without success, and finally he
called to some one without.
In answer to his
summons another Negro entered--a man of very different appearance from
M'ganwazam--so different, in fact, that Jane Clayton immediately decided th=
at
he was of another tribe. This man =
acted
as interpreter, and almost from the first question that M'ganwazam put to h=
er,
Jane felt an intuitive conviction that the savage was attempting to draw
information from her for some ulterior motive.
She thought it
strange that the fellow should so suddenly have become interested in her pl=
ans,
and especially in her intended destination when her journey had been
interrupted at his village.
Seeing no reason =
for
withholding the information, she told him the truth; but when he asked if s=
he
expected to meet her husband at the end of the trip, she shook her head
negatively.
Then he told her =
the
purpose of his visit, talking through the interpreter.
"I have just
learned," he said, "from some men who live by the side of the gre=
at
water, that your husband followed you up the Ugambi for several marches, wh=
en
he was at last set upon by natives and killed. Therefore I have told you th=
is
that you might not waste your time in a long journey if you expected to meet
your husband at the end of it; but instead could turn and retrace your step=
s to
the coast."
Jane thanked
M'ganwazam for his kindness, though her heart was numb with suffering at th=
is
new blow. She who had suffered so =
much
was at last beyond reach of the keenest of misery's pangs, for her senses w=
ere numbed
and calloused.
With bowed head s=
he
sat staring with unseeing eyes upon the face of the baby in her lap. M'ganwazam had left the hut. Sometime later she heard a noise at the
entrance--another had entered. One=
of
the women sitting opposite her threw a faggot upon the dying embers of the =
fire
between them.
With a sudden fla=
re
it burst into renewed flame, lighting up the hut's interior as though by ma=
gic.
The flame disclos=
ed
to Jane Clayton's horrified gaze that the baby was quite dead. How long it had been so she could not g=
uess.
A choking lump ro=
se
to her throat, her head drooped in silent misery upon the little bundle that
she had caught suddenly to her breast.
For a moment the
silence of the hut was unbroken. T=
hen
the native woman broke into a hideous wail.
A man coughed clo=
se
before Jane Clayton and spoke her name.
With a start she
raised her eyes to look into the sardonic countenance of Nikolas Rokoff.
For a moment Roko=
ff
stood sneering down upon Jane Clayton, then his eyes fell to the little bun=
dle
in her lap. Jane had drawn one cor=
ner of
the blanket over the child's face, so that to one who did not know the trut=
h it
seemed but to be sleeping.
"You have go=
ne
to a great deal of unnecessary trouble," said Rokoff, "to bring t=
he
child to this village. If you had =
attended
to your own affairs I should have brought it here myself.
"You would h=
ave
been spared the dangers and fatigue of the journey. But I suppose I must th=
ank
you for relieving me of the inconvenience of having to care for a young inf=
ant
on the march.
"This is the
village to which the child was destined from the first. M'ganwazam will rear
him carefully, making a good cannibal of him, and if you ever chance to ret=
urn
to civilization it will doubtless afford you much food for thought as you
compare the luxuries and comforts of your life with the details of the life
your son is living in the village of the Waganwazam.
"Again I tha=
nk
you for bringing him here for me, and now I must ask you to surrender him to
me, that I may turn him over to his foster parents." As he concluded
Rokoff held out his hands for the child, a nasty grin of vindictiveness upon
his lips.
To his surprise J=
ane
Clayton rose and, without a word of protest, laid the little bundle in his
arms.
"Here is the
child," she said. "Thank=
God
he is beyond your power to harm."
Grasping the impo=
rt
of her words, Rokoff snatched the blanket from the child's face to seek
confirmation of his fears. Jane C=
layton
watched his expression closely.
She had been puzz=
led
for days for an answer to the question of Rokoff's knowledge of the child's
identity. If she had been in doubt
before the last shred of that doubt was wiped away as she witnessed the
terrible anger of the Russian as he looked upon the dead face of the baby a=
nd realized
that at the last moment his dearest wish for vengeance had been thwarted by=
a
higher power.
Almost throwing t=
he
body of the child back into Jane Clayton's arms, Rokoff stamped up and down=
the
hut, pounding the air with his clenched fists and cursing terribly. At last he halted in front of the young=
woman,
bringing his face down close to hers.
"You are
laughing at me," he shrieked.
"You think that you have beaten me--eh? I'll show you, as I have shown the mise=
rable
ape you call 'husband,' what it means to interfere with the plans of Nikolas
Rokoff.
"You have ro=
bbed
me of the child. I cannot make him=
the
son of a cannibal chief, but"--and he paused as though to let the full
meaning of his threat sink deep--"I can make the mother the wife of a
cannibal, and that I shall do--after I have finished with her myself."=
If he had thought=
to
wring from Jane Clayton any sign of terror he failed miserably. She was beyond that. Her brain and nerves were numb to suffe=
ring
and shock.
To his surprise a
faint, almost happy smile touched her lips.
She was thinking with thank=
ful
heart that this poor little corpse was not that of her own wee Jack, and
that--best of all--Rokoff evidently did not know the truth.
She would have li=
ked
to have flaunted the fact in his face, but she dared not. If he continued to believe that the chi=
ld had
been hers, so much safer would be the real Jack wherever he might be. She had, of course, no knowledge of the
whereabouts of her little son--she did not know, even, that he still lived,=
and
yet there was the chance that he might.
It was more than
possible that without Rokoff's knowledge this child had been substituted for
hers by one of the Russian's confederates, and that even now her son might =
be
safe with friends in London, where there were many, both able and willing, =
to
have paid any ransom which the traitorous conspirator might have asked for =
the
safe release of Lord Greystoke's son.
She had thought it
all out a hundred times since she had discovered that the baby which Anders=
sen
had placed in her arms that night upon the Kincaid was not her own, and it =
had
been a constant and gnawing source of happiness to her to dream the whole
fantasy through in its every detail.
No, the Russian m=
ust
never know that this was not her baby.
She realized that her position was hopeless--with Anderssen and her
husband dead there was no one in all the world with a desire to succour her=
who
knew where she might be found.
Rokoff's threat, =
she
realized, was no idle one. That he=
would
do, or attempt to do, all that he had promised, she was perfectly sure; but=
at the
worst it meant but a little earlier release from the hideous anguish that s=
he
had been enduring. She must find =
some
way to take her own life before the Russian could harm her further.
Just now she want=
ed
time--time to think and prepare herself for the end. She felt that she could not take the la=
st,
awful step until she had exhausted every possibility of escape. She did not care to live unless she mi=
ght
find her way back to her own child, but slight as such a hope appeared she
would not admit its impossibility until the last moment had come, and she f=
aced
the fearful reality of choosing between the final alternatives--Nikolas Rok=
off
on one hand and self-destruction upon the other.
"Go away!&qu=
ot;
she said to the Russian. "Go =
away and
leave me in peace with my dead. Ha=
ve you
not brought sufficient misery and anguish upon me without attempting to har=
m me
further? What wrong have I ever do=
ne you
that you should persist in persecuting me?"
"You are
suffering for the sins of the monkey you chose when you might have had the =
love
of a gentleman--of Nikolas Rokoff," he replied. "But where is the use in discussin=
g the
matter? We shall bury the child he=
re,
and you will return with me at once to my own camp. Tomorrow I shall bring you back and tur=
n you
over to your new husband--the lovely M'ganwazam. Come!"
He reached out for
the child. Jane, who was on her fe=
et
now, turned away from him.
"I shall bury
the body," she said. "Se=
nd
some men to dig a grave outside the village."
Rokoff was anxiou=
s to
have the thing over and get back to his camp with his victim. He thought he saw in her apathy a resig=
nation
to her fate. Stepping outside the hut, he motioned her to follow him, and a
moment later, with his men, he escorted Jane beyond the village, where bene=
ath a
great tree the blacks scooped a shallow grave.
Wrapping the tiny
body in a blanket, Jane laid it tenderly in the black hole, and, turning her
head that she might not see the mouldy earth falling upon the pitiful little
bundle, she breathed a prayer beside the grave of the nameless waif that had
won its way to the innermost recesses of her heart.
Then, dry-eyed but
suffering, she rose and followed the Russian through the Stygian blackness =
of
the jungle, along the winding, leafy corridor that led from the village of
M'ganwazam, the black cannibal, to the camp of Nikolas Rokoff, the white fi=
end.
Beside them, in t=
he
impenetrable thickets that fringed the path, rising to arch above it and sh=
ut
out the moon, the girl could hear the stealthy, muffled footfalls of great
beasts, and ever round about them rose the deafening roars of hunting lions,
until the earth trembled to the mighty sound.
The porters light=
ed
torches now and waved them upon either hand to frighten off the beasts of
prey. Rokoff urged them to greater
speed, and from the quavering note in his voice Jane Clayton knew that he w=
as weak
from terror.
The sounds of the
jungle night recalled most vividly the days and nights that she had spent i=
n a
similar jungle with her forest god--with the fearless and unconquerable Tar=
zan
of the Apes. Then there had been no
thoughts of terror, though the jungle noises were new to her, and the roar =
of a
lion had seemed the most awe-inspiring sound upon the great earth.
How different wou=
ld
it be now if she knew that he was somewhere there in the wilderness, seeking
her! Then, indeed, would there be =
that
for which to live, and every reason to believe that succour was close at ha=
nd--but
he was dead! It was incredible tha=
t it
should be so.
There seemed no p=
lace
in death for that great body and those mighty thews. Had Rokoff been the one to tell her of =
her
lord's passing she would have known that he lied. There could be no reason, she thought,=
why
M'ganwazam should have deceived her. She
did not know that the Russian had talked with the savage a few minutes befo=
re
the chief had come to her with his tale.
At last they reac=
hed
the rude boma that Rokoff's porters had thrown up round the Russian's
camp. Here they found all in
turmoil. She did not know what it =
was
all about, but she saw that Rokoff was very angry, and from bits of
conversation which she could translate she gleaned that there had been furt=
her
desertions while he had been absent, and that the deserters had taken the b=
ulk
of his food and ammunition.
When he had done
venting his rage upon those who remained he returned to where Jane stood un=
der
guard of a couple of his white sailors.
He grasped her roughly by the arm and started to drag her toward his
tent. The girl struggled and fought to free herself, while the two sailors =
stood
by, laughing at the rare treat.
Rokoff did not
hesitate to use rough methods when he found that he was to have difficulty =
in
carrying out his designs. Repeate=
dly he
struck Jane Clayton in the face, until at last, half-conscious, she was dra=
gged
within his tent.
Rokoff's boy had
lighted the Russian's lamp, and now at a word from his master he made himse=
lf
scarce. Jane had sunk to the floor=
in
the middle of the enclosure. Slowl=
y her
numbed senses were returning to her and she was commencing to think very fa=
st
indeed. Quickly her eyes ran round=
the
interior of the tent, taking in every detail of its equipment and contents.=
Now the Russian w=
as
lifting her to her feet and attempting to drag her to the camp cot that sto=
od at
one side of the tent. At his belt=
hung a
heavy revolver. Jane Clayton's eyes
riveted themselves upon it. Her pa=
lm
itched to grasp the huge butt. She
feigned again to swoon, but through her half-closed lids she waited her
opportunity.
It came just as
Rokoff was lifting her upon the cot. A
noise at the tent door behind him brought his head quickly about and away f=
rom
the girl. The butt of the gun was =
not an
inch from her hand. With a single,
lightning-like move she snatched the weapon from its holster, and at the sa=
me
instant Rokoff turned back toward her, realizing his peril.
She did not dare =
fire
for fear the shot would bring his people about him, and with Rokoff dead she
would fall into hands no better than his and to a fate probably even worse =
than
he alone could have imagined. The memory of the two brutes who stood and
laughed as Rokoff struck her was still vivid.
As the rage and
fear-filled countenance of the Slav turned toward her Jane Clayton raised t=
he
heavy revolver high above the pasty face and with all her strength dealt the
man a terrific blow between the eyes.
Without a sound he
sank, limp and unconscious, to the ground.=
A moment later the girl stood beside him--for a moment at least free
from the menace of his lust.
Outside the tent =
she
again heard the noise that had distracted Rokoff's attention. What it was she did not know, but, fear=
ing
the return of the servant and the discovery of her deed, she stepped quickl=
y to
the camp table upon which burned the oil lamp and extinguished the smudgy, =
evil-smelling
flame.
In the total dark=
ness
of the interior she paused for a moment to collect her wits and plan for the
next step in her venture for freedom.
About her was a c=
amp
of enemies. Beyond these foes a bl=
ack
wilderness of savage jungle peopled by hideous beasts of prey and still mor=
e hideous
human beasts.
There was little =
or
no chance that she could survive even a few days of the constant dangers th=
at
would confront her there; but the knowledge that she had already passed thr=
ough
so many perils unscathed, and that somewhere out in the faraway world a lit=
tle
child was doubtless at that very moment crying for her, filled her with
determination to make the effort to accomplish the seemingly impossible and
cross that awful land of horror in search of the sea and the remote chance =
of
succour she might find there.
Rokoff's tent sto=
od
almost exactly in the centre of the boma. Surrounding it were the tents and
shelters of his white companions and the natives of his safari. To pass through these and find egress t=
hrough
the boma seemed a task too fraught with insurmountable obstacles to warrant
even the slightest consideration, and yet there was no other way.
To remain in the =
tent
until she should be discovered would be to set at naught all that she had
risked to gain her freedom, and so with stealthy step and every sense alert=
she
approached the back of the tent to set out upon the first stage of her
adventure.
Groping along the
rear of the canvas wall, she found that there was no opening there. Quickly she returned to the side of the
unconscious Russian. In his belt h=
er
groping fingers came upon the hilt of a long hunting-knife, and with this s=
he
cut a hole in the back wall of the tent.
Silently she step= ped without. To her immense relief she= saw that the camp was apparently asleep. In the dim and flickering light of the dying fires she saw but a single sentry, and he was dozing upon his haunches at the opposite side of the enclosure.<= o:p>
Keeping the tent
between him and herself, she crossed between the small shelters of the nati=
ve
porters to the boma wall beyond.
Outside, in the
darkness of the tangled jungle, she could hear the roaring of lions, the
laughing of hyenas, and the countless, nameless noises of the midnight jung=
le.
For a moment she
hesitated, trembling. The thought =
of the
prowling beasts out there in the darkness was appalling. Then, with a sudden brave toss of her =
head,
she attacked the thorny boma wall with her delicate hands. Torn and bleeding though they were, she
worked on breathlessly until she had made an opening through which she could
worm her body, and at last she stood outside the enclosure.
Behind her lay a =
fate
worse than death, at the hands of human beings.
Before her lay an
almost certain fate--but it was only death--sudden, merciful, and honourable
death.
Without a tremor =
and
without regret she darted away from the camp, and a moment later the myster=
ious
jungle had closed about her.
Tambudza, leading
Tarzan of the Apes toward the camp of the Russian, moved very slowly along =
the
winding jungle path, for she was old and her legs stiff with rheumatism.
So it was that the
runners dispatched by M'ganwazam to warn Rokoff that the white giant was in=
his
village and that he would be slain that night reached the Russian's camp be=
fore
Tarzan and his ancient guide had covered half the distance.
The guides found =
the
white man's camp in a turmoil. Ro=
koff
had that morning been discovered stunned and bleeding within his tent. When he had recovered his senses and re=
alized
that Jane Clayton had escaped, his rage was boundless.
Rushing about the
camp with his rifle, he had sought to shoot down the native sentries who had
allowed the young woman to elude their vigilance, but several of the other
whites, realizing that they were already in a precarious position owing to =
the
numerous desertions that Rokoff's cruelty had brought about, seized and
disarmed him.
Then came the
messengers from M'ganwazam, but scarce had they told their story and Rokoff=
was
preparing to depart with them for their village when other runners, panting
from the exertions of their swift flight through the jungle, rushed breathl=
ess
into the firelight, crying that the great white giant had escaped from
M'ganwazam and was already on his way to wreak vengeance against his enemie=
s.
Instantly confusi=
on
reigned within the encircling boma. The
blacks belonging to Rokoff's safari were terror-stricken at the thought of =
the proximity
of the white giant who hunted through the jungle with a fierce pack of apes=
and
panthers at his heels.
Before the whites
realized what had happened the superstitious fears of the natives had sent =
them
scurrying into the bush--their own carriers as well as the messengers from
M'ganwazam--but even in their haste they had not neglected to take with them
every article of value upon which they could lay their hands.
Thus Rokoff and t=
he
seven white sailors found themselves deserted and robbed in the midst of a
wilderness.
The Russian,
following his usual custom, berated his companions, laying all the blame up=
on
their shoulders for the events which had led up to the almost hopeless
condition in which they now found themselves; but the sailors were in no mo=
od
to brook his insults and his cursing.
In the midst of t=
his
tirade one of them drew a revolver and fired point-blank at the Russian.
As he ran his eyes
chanced to pass beyond the boma to the edge of the forest, and there he cau=
ght a
glimpse of that which sent his craven heart cold with a fear that almost
expunged his terror of the seven men at his back, who by this time were all
firing in hate and revenge at his retreating figure.
What he saw was t=
he
giant figure of an almost naked white man emerging from the bush.
Darting into his
tent, the Russian did not halt in his flight, but kept right on through the
rear wall, taking advantage of the long slit that Jane Clayton had made the
night before.
The terror-strick=
en
Muscovite scurried like a hunted rabbit through the hole that still gaped in
the boma's wall at the point where his own prey had escaped, and as Tarzan
approached the camp upon the opposite side Rokoff disappeared into the jung=
le
in the wake of Jane Clayton.
As the ape-man en=
tered
the boma with old Tambudza at his elbow the seven sailors, recognizing him,
turned and fled in the opposite direction.
Tarzan saw that Rokoff was not among them, and so he let them go the=
ir
way--his business was with the Russian, whom he expected to find in his
tent. As to the sailors, he was su=
re
that the jungle would exact from them expiation for their villainies, nor,
doubtless, was he wrong, for his were the last white man's eyes to rest upon
any of them.
Finding Rokoff's =
tent
empty, Tarzan was about to set out in search of the Russian when Tambudza
suggested to him that the departure of the white man could only have result=
ed
from word reaching him from M'ganwazam that Tarzan was in his village.
"He has
doubtless hastened there," argued the old woman. "If you would find him let us retu=
rn at
once."
Tarzan himself
thought that this would probably prove to be the fact, so he did not waste =
time
in an endeavour to locate the Russian's trail, but, instead, set out briskly
for the village of M'ganwazam, leaving Tambudza to plod slowly in his wake.=
His one hope was =
that
Jane was still safe and with Rokoff. If
this was the case, it would be but a matter of an hour or more before he sh=
ould
be able to wrest her from the Russian.
He knew now that
M'ganwazam was treacherous and that he might have to fight to regain posses=
sion
of his wife. He wished that Mugam=
bi, Sheeta,
Akut, and the balance of the pack were with him, for he realized that
single-handed it would be no child's play to bring Jane safely from the
clutches of two such scoundrels as Rokoff and the wily M'ganwazam.
To his surprise he
found no sign of either Rokoff or Jane in the village, and as he could not
trust the word of the chief, he wasted no time in futile inquiry. So sudden and unexpected had been his r=
eturn,
and so quickly had he vanished into the jungle after learning that those he
sought were not among the Waganwazam, that old M'ganwazam had no time to
prevent his going.
Swinging through =
the
trees, he hastened back to the deserted camp he had so recently left, for h=
ere,
he knew, was the logical place to take up the trail of Rokoff and Jane.
Arrived at the bo=
ma,
he circled carefully about the outside of the enclosure until, opposite a b=
reak
in the thorny wall, he came to indications that something had recently pass=
ed
into the jungle. His acute sense of
smell told him that both of those he sought had fled from the camp in this
direction, and a moment later he had taken up the trail and was following t=
he
faint spoor.
Far ahead of him a
terror-stricken young woman was slinking along a narrow game-trail, fearful
that the next moment would bring her face to face with some savage beast or
equally savage man. As she ran on,=
hoping
against hope that she had hit upon the direction that would lead her eventu=
ally
to the great river, she came suddenly upon a familiar spot.
At one side of the
trail, beneath a giant tree, lay a little heap of loosely piled brush--to h=
er
dying day that little spot of jungle would be indelibly impressed upon her
memory. It was where Anderssen had hidden her--w=
here
he had given up his life in the vain effort to save her from Rokoff.
At sight of it she
recalled the rifle and ammunition that the man had thrust upon her at the l=
ast
moment. Until now she had forgotte=
n them
entirely. Still clutched in her ha=
nd was
the revolver she had snatched from Rokoff's belt, but that could contain at
most not over six cartridges--not enough to furnish her with food and
protection both on the long journey to the sea.
With bated breath=
she
groped beneath the little mound, scarce daring to hope that the treasure
remained where she had left it; but, to her infinite relief and joy, her ha=
nd
came at once upon the barrel of the heavy weapon and then upon the bandolee=
r of
cartridges.
As she threw the
latter about her shoulder and felt the weight of the big game-gun in her ha=
nd a
sudden sense of security suffused her.
It was with new hope and a feeling almost of assured success that sh=
e again
set forward upon her journey.
That night she sl=
ept
in the crotch of a tree, as Tarzan had so often told her that he was accust=
omed
to doing, and early the next morning was upon her way again. Late in the afternoon, as she was about=
to cross
a little clearing, she was startled at the sight of a huge ape coming from =
the
jungle upon the opposite side.
The wind was blow=
ing
directly across the clearing between them, and Jane lost no time in putting
herself downwind from the huge creature. Then she hid in a clump of heavy b=
ush
and watched, holding the rifle ready for instant use.
To her consternat=
ion
she saw that the apes were pausing in the centre of the clearing. They came together in a little knot, wh=
ere
they stood looking backward, as though in expectation of the coming of othe=
rs
of their tribe. Jane wished that =
they
would go on, for she knew that at any moment some little, eddying gust of w=
ind
might carry her scent down to their nostrils, and then what would the
protection of her rifle amount to in the face of those gigantic muscles and
mighty fangs?
Her eyes moved ba=
ck
and forth between the apes and the edge of the jungle toward which they were
gazing until at last she perceived the object of their halt and the thing t=
hat
they awaited. They were being stal=
ked.
Of this she was positive, as she saw the lithe, sinewy form of a panther glide noiselessly = from the jungle at the point at which the apes had emerged but a moment before.<= o:p>
Quickly the beast
trotted across the clearing toward the anthropoids. Jane wondered at their
apparent apathy, and a moment later her wonder turned to amazement as she s=
aw
the great cat come quite close to the apes, who appeared entirely unconcern=
ed
by its presence, and, squatting down in their midst, fell assiduously to the
business of preening, which occupies most of the waking hours of the cat
family.
If the young woman
was surprised by the sight of these natural enemies fraternizing, it was wi=
th
emotions little short of fear for her own sanity that she presently saw a t=
all,
muscular warrior enter the clearing and join the group of savage beasts
assembled there.
At first sight of=
the
man she had been positive that he would be torn to pieces, and she had half
risen from her shelter, raising her rifle to her shoulder to do what she co=
uld
to avert the man's terrible fate.
Now she saw that =
he
seemed actually conversing with the beasts--issuing orders to them.
Presently the ent=
ire
company filed on across the clearing and disappeared in the jungle upon the
opposite side.
With a gasp of
mingled incredulity and relief Jane Clayton staggered to her feet and fled =
on
away from the terrible horde that had just passed her, while a half-mile be=
hind
her another individual, following the same trail as she, lay frozen with te=
rror
behind an ant-hill as the hideous band passed quite close to him.
This one was Roko=
ff;
but he had recognized the members of the awful aggregation as allies of Tar=
zan
of the Apes. No sooner, therefore=
, had
the beasts passed him than he rose and raced through the jungle as fast as =
he
could go, in order that he might put as much distance as possible between
himself and these frightful beasts.
So it happened th=
at
as Jane Clayton came to the bank of the river, down which she hoped to floa=
t to
the ocean and eventual rescue, Nikolas Rokoff was but a short distance in h=
er
rear.
Upon the bank the
girl saw a great dugout drawn half-way from the water and tied securely to a
near-by tree.
This, she felt, w=
ould
solve the question of transportation to the sea could she but launch the hu=
ge,
unwieldy craft. Unfastening the r=
ope that
had moored it to the tree, Jane pushed frantically upon the bow of the heavy
canoe, but for all the results that were apparent she might as well have be=
en
attempting to shove the earth out of its orbit.
She was about win=
ded
when it occurred to her to try working the dugout into the stream by loading
the stern with ballast and then rocking the bow back and forth along the ba=
nk
until the craft eventually worked itself into the river.
There were no sto=
nes
or rocks available, but along the shore she found quantities of driftwood
deposited by the river at a slightly higher stage. These she gathered and piled far in the=
stern
of the boat, until at last, to her immense relief, she saw the bow rise gen=
tly
from the mud of the bank and the stern drift slowly with the current until =
it
again lodged a few feet farther down-stream.
Jane found that by
running back and forth between the bow and stern she could alternately raise
and lower each end of the boat as she shifted her weight from one end to the
other, with the result that each time she leaped to the stern the canoe mov=
ed a
few inches farther into the river.
As the success of=
her
plan approached more closely to fruition she became so wrapped in her effor=
ts
that she failed to note the figure of a man standing beneath a huge tree at=
the
edge of the jungle from which he had just emerged.
He watched her and
her labours with a cruel and malicious grin upon his swarthy countenance.
The boat at last
became so nearly free of the retarding mud and of the bank that Jane felt
positive that she could pole it off into deeper water with one of the paddl=
es
which lay in the bottom of the rude craft.
With this end in view she seized upon one of these implements and had
just plunged it into the river bottom close to the shore when her eyes happ=
ened
to rise to the edge of the jungle.
As her gaze fell =
upon
the figure of the man a little cry of terror rose to her lips. It was Rokoff.
He was running to=
ward
her now and shouting to her to wait or he would shoot--though as he was
entirely unarmed it was difficult to discover just how he intended making g=
ood
his threat.
Jane Clayton knew
nothing of the various misfortunes that had befallen the Russian since she =
had
escaped from his tent, so she believed that his followers must be close at
hand.
However, she had =
no
intention of falling again into the man's clutches. She would rather die at
once than that that should happen to her. Another minute and the boat would=
be
free.
Once in the curre=
nt
of the river she would be beyond Rokoff's power to stop her, for there was =
no
other boat upon the shore, and no man, and certainly not the cowardly Rokof=
f,
would dare to attempt to swim the crocodile-infested water in an effort to
overtake her.
Rokoff, on his pa=
rt,
was bent more upon escape than aught else.=
He would gladly have forgone any designs he might have had upon Jane=
Clayton
would she but permit him to share this means of escape that she had
discovered. He would promise anyth=
ing if
she would let him come aboard the dugout, but he did not think that it was
necessary to do so.
He saw that he co=
uld
easily reach the bow of the boat before it cleared the shore, and then it w=
ould
not be necessary to make promises of any sort.
Not that Rokoff would have felt the slightest compunction in ignoring
any promises he might have made the girl, but he disliked the idea of havin=
g to
sue for favour with one who had so recently assaulted and escaped him.
Already he was
gloating over the days and nights of revenge that would be his while the he=
avy
dugout drifted its slow way to the ocean.
Jane Clayton, wor=
king
furiously to shove the boat beyond his reach, suddenly realized that she wa=
s to
be successful, for with a little lurch the dugout swung quickly into the
current, just as the Russian reached out to place his hand upon its bow.
His fingers did n=
ot
miss their goal by a half-dozen inches.
The girl almost collapsed with the reaction from the terrific mental,
physical, and nervous strain under which she had been labouring for the past
few minutes. But, thank Heaven, at=
last
she was safe!
Even as she breat=
hed
a silent prayer of thanksgiving, she saw a sudden expression of triumph lig=
hten
the features of the cursing Russian, and at the same instant he dropped
suddenly to the ground, grasping firmly upon something which wriggled throu=
gh
the mud toward the water.
Jane Clayton
crouched, wide-eyed and horror-stricken, in the bottom of the boat as she
realized that at the last instant success had been turned to failure, and t=
hat
she was indeed again in the power of the malignant Rokoff.
For the thing that
the man had seen and grasped was the end of the trailing rope with which the
dugout had been moored to the tree.
Halfway between t=
he
Ugambi and the village of the Waganwazam, Tarzan came upon the pack moving
slowly along his old spoor. Mugam=
bi
could scarce believe that the trail of the Russian and the mate of his sava=
ge master
had passed so close to that of the pack.
It seemed incredi=
ble
that two human beings should have come so close to them without having been
detected by some of the marvellously keen and alert beasts; but Tarzan poin=
ted
out the spoor of the two he trailed, and at certain points the black could =
see
that the man and the woman must have been in hiding as the pack passed them,
watching every move of the ferocious creatures.
It had been appar=
ent
to Tarzan from the first that Jane and Rokoff were not travelling
together. The spoor showed distinc=
tly
that the young woman had been a considerable distance ahead of the Russian =
at
first, though the farther the ape-man continued along the trail the more ob=
vious
it became that the man was rapidly overhauling his quarry.
At first there had
been the spoor of wild beasts over the footprints of Jane Clayton, while up=
on
the top of all Rokoff's spoor showed that he had passed over the trail after
the animals had left their records upon the ground. But later there were fewer and fewer an=
imal
imprints occurring between those of Jane's and the Russian's feet, until as=
he approached
the river the ape-man became aware that Rokoff could not have been more tha=
n a
few hundred yards behind the girl.
He felt they must=
be
close ahead of him now, and, with a little thrill of expectation, he leaped
rapidly forward ahead of the pack.
Swinging swiftly through the trees, he came out upon the river-bank =
at
the very point at which Rokoff had overhauled Jane as she endeavoured to la=
unch
the cumbersome dugout.
In the mud along =
the
bank the ape-man saw the footprints of the two he sought, but there was nei=
ther
boat nor people there when he arrived, nor, at first glance, any sign of th=
eir
whereabouts.
It was plain that
they had shoved off a native canoe and embarked upon the bosom of the strea=
m,
and as the ape-man's eye ran swiftly down the course of the river beneath t=
he
shadows of the overarching trees he saw in the distance, just as it rounded=
a
bend that shut it off from his view, a drifting dugout in the stern of which
was the figure of a man.
Just as the pack =
came
in sight of the river they saw their agile leader racing down the river's b=
ank,
leaping from hummock to hummock of the swampy ground that spread between th=
em
and a little promontory which rose just where the river curved inward from
their sight.
To follow him it =
was
necessary for the heavy, cumbersome apes to make a wide detour, and Sheeta,
too, who hated water. Mugambi fol=
lowed
after them as rapidly as he could in the wake of the great white master.
A half-hour of ra=
pid
travelling across the swampy neck of land and over the rising promontory
brought Tarzan, by a short cut, to the inward bend of the winding river, and
there before him upon the bosom of the stream he saw the dugout, and in its
stern Nikolas Rokoff.
Jane was not with=
the
Russian.
At sight of his e=
nemy
the broad scar upon the ape-man's brow burned scarlet, and there rose to his
lips the hideous, bestial challenge of the bull-ape.
Rokoff shuddered =
as
the weird and terrible alarm fell upon his ears. Cowering in the bottom of =
the
boat, his teeth chattering in terror, he watched the man he feared above al=
l other
creatures upon the face of the earth as he ran quickly to the edge of the
water.
Even though the
Russian knew that he was safe from his enemy, the very sight of him threw h=
im
into a frenzy of trembling cowardice, which became frantic hysteria as he s=
aw
the white giant dive fearlessly into the forbidding waters of the tropical
river.
With steady, powe=
rful
strokes the ape-man forged out into the stream toward the drifting dugout.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Now Rokoff seized one of the paddles ly=
ing in
the bottom of the craft, and, with terrorwide eyes still glued upon the liv=
ing
death that pursued him, struck out madly in an effort to augment the speed =
of
the unwieldy canoe.
And from the oppo=
site
bank a sinister ripple, unseen by either man, moved steadily toward the
half-naked swimmer.
Tarzan had reached
the stern of the craft at last. On=
e hand
upstretched grasped the gunwale. R=
okoff
sat frozen with fear, unable to move a hand or foot, his eyes riveted upon =
the
face of his Nemesis.
Then a sudden
commotion in the water behind the swimmer caught his attention. He saw the ripple, and he knew what cau=
sed
it.
At the same insta=
nt
Tarzan felt mighty jaws close upon his right leg. He tried to struggle free=
and
raise himself over the side of the boat. His efforts would have succeeded h=
ad not
this unexpected interruption galvanized the malign brain of the Russian into
instant action with its sudden promise of deliverance and revenge.
Like a venomous s=
nake
the man leaped toward the stern of the boat, and with a single swift blow
struck Tarzan across the head with the heavy paddle. The ape-man's fingers slipped from thei=
r hold
upon the gunwale.
There was a short
struggle at the surface, and then a swirl of waters, a little eddy, and a b=
urst
of bubbles soon smoothed out by the flowing current marked for the instant =
the
spot where Tarzan of the Apes, Lord of the Jungle, disappeared from the sig=
ht
of men beneath the gloomy waters of the dark and forbidding Ugambi.
Weak from terror,
Rokoff sank shuddering into the bottom of the dugout. For a moment he could=
not
realize the good fortune that had befallen him--all that he could see was t=
he
figure of a silent, struggling white man disappearing beneath the surface of
the river to unthinkable death in the slimy mud of the bottom.
Slowly all that it
meant to him filtered into the mind of the Russian, and then a cruel smile =
of
relief and triumph touched his lips; but it was short-lived, for just as he=
was
congratulating himself that he was now comparatively safe to proceed upon h=
is
way to the coast unmolested, a mighty pandemonium rose from the river-bank
close by.
As his eyes sought
the authors of the frightful sound he saw standing upon the shore, glaring =
at
him with hate-filled eyes, a devil-faced panther surrounded by the hideous =
apes
of Akut, and in the forefront of them a giant black warrior who shook his f=
ist
at him, threatening him with terrible death.
The nightmare of =
that
flight down the Ugambi with the hideous horde racing after him by day and by
night, now abreast of him, now lost in the mazes of the jungle far behind f=
or
hours and once for a whole day, only to reappear again upon his trail grim,
relentless, and terrible, reduced the Russian from a strong and robust man =
to
an emaciated, white-haired, fear-gibbering thing before ever the bay and the
ocean broke upon his hopeless vision.
Past populous
villages he had fled. Time and aga=
in
warriors had put out in their canoes to intercept him, but each time the
hideous horde had swept into view to send the terrified natives shrieking b=
ack
to the shore to lose themselves in the jungle.
Nowhere in his fl=
ight
had he seen aught of Jane Clayton. Not
once had his eyes rested upon her since that moment at the river's brim his
hand had closed upon the rope attached to the bow of her dugout and he had =
believed
her safely in his power again, only to be thwarted an instant later as the =
girl
snatched up a heavy express rifle from the bottom of the craft and levelled=
it
full at his breast.
Quickly he had
dropped the rope then and seen her float away beyond his reach, but a moment
later he had been racing up-stream toward a little tributary in the mouth of
which was hidden the canoe in which he and his party had come thus far upon
their journey in pursuit of the girl and Anderssen.
What had become of
her?
There seemed litt=
le
doubt in the Russian's mind, however, but that she had been captured by
warriors from one of the several villages she would have been compelled to =
pass
on her way down to the sea. Well, =
he was
at least rid of most of his human enemies.
But at that he wo=
uld
gladly have had them all back in the land of the living could he thus have =
been
freed from the menace of the frightful creatures who pursued him with awful
relentlessness, screaming and growling at him every time they came within s=
ight
of him. The one that filled him wi=
th the
greatest terror was the panther--the flaming-eyed, devil-faced panther whose
grinning jaws gaped wide at him by day, and whose fiery orbs gleamed wicked=
ly
out across the water from the Cimmerian blackness of the jungle nights.
The sight of the
mouth of the Ugambi filled Rokoff with renewed hope, for there, upon the ye=
llow
waters of the bay, floated the Kincaid at anchor. He had sent the little steamer away to =
coal
while he had gone up the river, leaving Paulvitch in charge of her, and he
could have cried aloud in his relief as he saw that she had returned in tim=
e to
save him.
Frantically he
alternately paddled furiously toward her and rose to his feet waving his pa=
ddle
and crying aloud in an attempt to attract the attention of those on board.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> But loud as he screamed his cries awake=
ned no
answering challenge from the deck of the silent craft.
Upon the shore be=
hind
him a hurried backward glance revealed the presence of the snarling pack. Even now, he thought, these manlike dev=
ils
might yet find a way to reach him even upon the deck of the steamer unless
there were those there to repel them with firearms.
What could have
happened to those he had left upon the Kincaid?
Where was Paulvitch? Could =
it be
that the vessel was deserted, and that, after all, he was doomed to be
overtaken by the terrible fate that he had been flying from through all the=
se
hideous days and nights? He shiver=
ed as
might one upon whose brow death has already laid his clammy finger.
Yet he did not ce=
ase
to paddle frantically toward the steamer, and at last, after what seemed an
eternity, the bow of the dugout bumped against the timbers of the Kincaid.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Over the ship's side hung a monkey-ladd=
er,
but as the Russian grasped it to ascend to the deck he heard a warning
challenge from above, and, looking up, gazed into the cold, relentless muzz=
le
of a rifle.
After Jane Clayto=
n,
with rifle levelled at the breast of Rokoff, had succeeded in holding him o=
ff
until the dugout in which she had taken refuge had drifted out upon the bos=
om
of the Ugambi beyond the man's reach, she had lost no time in paddling to t=
he
swiftest sweep of the channel, nor did she for long days and weary nights c=
ease
to hold her craft to the most rapidly moving part of the river, except when=
during
the hottest hours of the day she had been wont to drift as the current would
take her, lying prone in the bottom of the canoe, her face sheltered from t=
he
sun with a great palm leaf.
Thus only did she
gain rest upon the voyage; at other times she continually sought to augment=
the
movement of the craft by wielding the heavy paddle.
Rokoff, on the ot=
her
hand, had used little or no intelligence in his flight along the Ugambi, so
that more often than not his craft had drifted in the slow-going eddies, fo=
r he
habitually hugged the bank farthest from that along which the hideous horde
pursued and menaced him.
Thus it was that,
though he had put out upon the river but a short time subsequent to the gir=
l,
yet she had reached the bay fully two hours ahead of him. When she had first seen the anchored sh=
ip
upon the quiet water, Jane Clayton's heart had beat fast with hope and
thanksgiving, but as she drew closer to the craft and saw that it was the
Kincaid, her pleasure gave place to the gravest misgivings.
It was too late,
however, to turn back, for the current that carried her toward the ship was
much too strong for her muscles. S=
he
could not have forced the heavy dugout up-stream against it, and all that w=
as left
her was to attempt either to make the shore without being seen by those upon
the deck of the Kincaid, or to throw herself upon their mercy--otherwise she
must be swept out to sea.
She knew that the
shore held little hope of life for her, as she had no knowledge of the loca=
tion
of the friendly Mosula village to which Anderssen had taken her through the
darkness of the night of their escape from the Kincaid.
With Rokoff away =
from
the steamer it might be possible that by offering those in charge a large
reward they could be induced to carry her to the nearest civilized port.
The current was
bearing her swiftly down the river, and she found that only by dint of the
utmost exertion could she direct the awkward craft toward the vicinity of t=
he
Kincaid. Having reached the decis=
ion to
board the steamer, she now looked to it for aid, but to her surprise the de=
cks
appeared to be empty and she saw no sign of life aboard the ship.
The dugout was
drawing closer and closer to the bow of the vessel, and yet no hail came ov=
er
the side from any lookout aboard. =
In a
moment more, Jane realized, she would be swept beyond the steamer, and then=
, unless
they lowered a boat to rescue her, she would be carried far out to sea by t=
he
current and the swift ebb tide that was running.
The young woman
called loudly for assistance, but there was no reply other than the shrill
scream of some savage beast upon the jungle-shrouded shore. Frantically Jane wielded the paddle in =
an effort
to carry her craft close alongside the steamer.
For a moment it
seemed that she should miss her goal by but a few feet, but at the last mom=
ent
the canoe swung close beneath the steamer's bow and Jane barely managed to
grasp the anchor chain.
Heroically she cl=
ung
to the heavy iron links, almost dragged from the canoe by the strain of the
current upon her craft. Beyond he=
r she
saw a monkey-ladder dangling over the steamer's side. To release her hold upon the chain and =
chance
clambering to the ladder as her canoe was swept beneath it seemed beyond the
pale of possibility, yet to remain clinging to the anchor chain appeared
equally as futile.
Finally her glance
chanced to fall upon the rope in the bow of the dugout, and, making one end=
of
this fast to the chain, she succeeded in drifting the canoe slowly down unt=
il
it lay directly beneath the ladder. A
moment later, her rifle slung about her shoulders, she had clambered safely=
to
the deserted deck.
Her first task wa=
s to
explore the ship, and this she did, her rifle ready for instant use should =
she
meet with any human menace aboard the Kincaid.
She was not long in discovering the cause of the apparently deserted
condition of the steamer, for in the forecastle she found the sailors, who =
had
evidently been left to guard the ship, deep in drunken slumber.
With a shudder of
disgust she clambered above, and to the best of her ability closed and made
fast the hatch above the heads of the sleeping guard. Next she sought the galley and food, an=
d,
having appeased her hunger, she took her place on deck, determined that none
should board the Kincaid without first having agreed to her demands.
For an hour or so
nothing appeared upon the surface of the river to cause her alarm, but then,
about a bend up-stream, she saw a canoe appear in which sat a single
figure. It had not proceeded far i=
n her direction
before she recognized the occupant as Rokoff, and when the fellow attempted=
to
board he found a rifle staring him in the face.
When the Russian
discovered who it was that repelled his advance he became furious, cursing =
and
threatening in a most horrible manner; but, finding that these tactics fail=
ed
to frighten or move the girl, he at last fell to pleading and promising.
Jane had but a si=
ngle
reply for his every proposition, and that was that nothing would ever persu=
ade
her to permit Rokoff upon the same vessel with her. That she would put her threats into act=
ion
and shoot him should he persist in his endeavour to board the ship he was c=
onvinced.
So, as there was =
no
other alternative, the great coward dropped back into his dugout and, at
imminent risk of being swept to sea, finally succeeded in making the shore =
far
down the bay and upon the opposite side from that on which the horde of bea=
sts
stood snarling and roaring.
Jane Clayton knew
that the fellow could not alone and unaided bring his heavy craft back
up-stream to the Kincaid, and so she had no further fear of an attack by
him. The hideous crew upon the sh=
ore
she thought she recognized as the same that had passed her in the jungle fa=
r up
the Ugambi several days before, for it seemed quite beyond reason that there
should be more than one such a strangely assorted pack; but what had brought
them down-stream to the mouth of the river she could not imagine.
Toward the day's
close the girl was suddenly alarmed by the shouting of the Russian from the
opposite bank of the stream, and a moment later, following the direction of=
his
gaze, she was terrified to see a ship's boat approaching from up-stream, in
which, she felt assured, there could be only members of the Kincaid's missi=
ng
crew--only heartless ruffians and enemies.
When Tarzan of the
Apes realized that he was in the grip of the great jaws of a crocodile he d=
id
not, as an ordinary man might have done, give up all hope and resign himsel=
f to
his fate.
Instead, he filled
his lungs with air before the huge reptile dragged him beneath the surface,=
and
then, with all the might of his great muscles, fought bitterly for
freedom. But out of his native ele=
ment the
ape-man was too greatly handicapped to do more than excite the monster to
greater speed as it dragged its prey swiftly through the water.
Tarzan's lungs we=
re
bursting for a breath of pure fresh air.
He knew that he could survive but a moment more, and in the last par=
oxysm
of his suffering he did what he could to avenge his own death.
His body trailed =
out
beside the slimy carcass of his captor, and into the tough armour the ape-m=
an
attempted to plunge his stone knife as he was borne to the creature's horrid
den.
His efforts but
served to accelerate the speed of the crocodile, and just as the ape-man
realized that he had reached the limit of his endurance he felt his body
dragged to a muddy bed and his nostrils rise above the water's surface. All about him was the blackness of the =
pit--the
silence of the grave.
For a moment Tarz=
an
of the Apes lay gasping for breath upon the slimy, evil-smelling bed to whi=
ch
the animal had borne him. Close at=
his
side he could feel the cold, hard plates of the creature's coat rising and =
falling
as though with spasmodic efforts to breathe.
For several minut=
es
the two lay thus, and then a sudden convulsion of the giant carcass at the
man's side, a tremor, and a stiffening brought Tarzan to his knees beside t=
he
crocodile. To his utter amazement=
he found
that the beast was dead. The slim=
knife
had found a vulnerable spot in the scaly armour.
Staggering to his
feet, the ape-man groped about the reeking, oozy den. He found that he was
imprisoned in a subterranean chamber amply large enough to have accommodate=
d a
dozen or more of the huge animals such as the one that had dragged him thit=
her.
He realized that =
he
was in the creature's hidden nest far under the bank of the stream, and that
doubtless the only means of ingress or egress lay through the submerged ope=
ning
through which the crocodile had brought him.
His first thought=
, of
course, was of escape, but that he could make his way to the surface of the
river beyond and then to the shore seemed highly improbable. There might be turns and windings in th=
e neck
of the passage, or, most to be feared, he might meet another of the slimy i=
nhabitants
of the retreat upon his journey outward.
Even should he re=
ach
the river in safety, there was still the danger of his being again attacked
before he could effect a safe landing.
Still there was no alternative, and, filling his lungs with the close
and reeking air of the chamber, Tarzan of the Apes dived into the dark and =
watery
hole which he could not see but had felt out and found with his feet and le=
gs.
The leg which had
been held within the jaws of the crocodile was badly lacerated, but the bone
had not been broken, nor were the muscles or tendons sufficiently injured to
render it useless. It gave him exc=
ruciating
pain, that was all.
But Tarzan of the=
Apes
was accustomed to pain, and gave it no further thought when he found that t=
he
use of his legs was not greatly impaired by the sharp teeth of the monster.=
Rapidly he crawled
and swam through the passage which inclined downward and finally upward to =
open
at last into the river bottom but a few feet from the shore line. As the ape-man reached the surface he s=
aw the
heads of two great crocodiles but a short distance from him. They were making rapidly in his directi=
on,
and with a superhuman effort the man struck out for the overhanging branche=
s of
a near-by tree.
Nor was he a mome=
nt
too soon, for scarcely had he drawn himself to the safety of the limb than =
two
gaping mouths snapped venomously below him. For a few minutes Tarzan rested=
in
the tree that had proved the means of his salvation. His eyes scanned the river as far
down-stream as the tortuous channel would permit, but there was no sign of =
the
Russian or his dugout.
When he had rested
and bound up his wounded leg he started on in pursuit of the drifting
canoe. He found himself upon the
opposite of the river to that at which he had entered the stream, but as his
quarry was upon the bosom of the water it made little difference to the ape=
-man
upon which side he took up the pursuit.
To his intense
chagrin he soon found that his leg was more badly injured than he had thoug=
ht,
and that its condition seriously impeded his progress. It was only with the greatest difficult=
y that
he could proceed faster than a walk upon the ground, and in the trees he di=
scovered
that it not only impeded his progress, but rendered travelling distinctly
dangerous.
From the old negr=
ess,
Tambudza, Tarzan had gathered a suggestion that now filled his mind with do=
ubts
and misgivings. When the old woman=
had told
him of the child's death she had also added that the white woman, though
grief-stricken, had confided to her that the baby was not hers.
Tarzan could see =
no
reason for believing that Jane could have found it advisable to deny her
identity or that of the child; the only explanation that he could put upon =
the
matter was that, after all, the white woman who had accompanied his son and=
the
Swede into the jungle fastness of the interior had not been Jane at all.
The more he gave
thought to the problem, the more firmly convinced he became that his son was
dead and his wife still safe in London, and in ignorance of the terrible fa=
te
that had overtaken her first-born.
After all, then, =
his
interpretation of Rokoff's sinister taunt had been erroneous, and he had be=
en
bearing the burden of a double apprehension needlessly--at least so thought=
the
ape-man. From this belief he garn=
ered
some slight surcease from the numbing grief that the death of his little son
had thrust upon him.
And such a
death! Even the savage beast that =
was
the real Tarzan, inured to the sufferings and horrors of the grim jungle,
shuddered as he contemplated the hideous fate that had overtaken the innoce=
nt
child.
As he made his way
painfully towards the coast, he let his mind dwell so constantly upon the
frightful crimes which the Russian had perpetrated against his loved ones t=
hat
the great scar upon his forehead stood out almost continuously in the vivid
scarlet that marked the man's most relentless and bestial moods of rage.
Could he but lay =
his
hand upon the Russian!
Twice upon the wa=
y to
the coast bellicose natives ran threateningly from their villages to bar his
further progress, but when the awful cry of the bull-ape thundered upon the=
ir
affrighted ears, and the great white giant charged bellowing upon them, they
had turned and fled into the bush, nor ventured thence until he had safely
passed.
Though his progre=
ss
seemed tantalizingly slow to the ape-man whose idea of speed had been gaine=
d by
such standards as the lesser apes attain, he made, as a matter of fact, alm=
ost
as rapid progress as the drifting canoe that bore Rokoff on ahead of him, so
that he came to the bay and within sight of the ocean just after darkness h=
ad
fallen upon the same day that Jane Clayton and the Russian ended their flig=
hts
from the interior.
The darkness lowe=
red
so heavily upon the black river and the encircling jungle that Tarzan, even
with eyes accustomed to much use after dark, could make out nothing a few y=
ards
from him. His idea was to search t=
he
shore that night for signs of the Russian and the woman who he was certain =
must
have preceded Rokoff down the Ugambi. That
the Kincaid or other ship lay at anchor but a hundred yards from him he did=
not
dream, for no light showed on board the steamer.
Even as he commen=
ced
his search his attention was suddenly attracted by a noise that he had not =
at
first perceived--the stealthy dip of paddles in the water some distance from
the shore, and about opposite the point at which he stood. Motionless as a statue he stood listen=
ing to
the faint sound.
Presently it ceas=
ed,
to be followed by a shuffling noise that the ape-man's trained ears could
interpret as resulting from but a single cause--the scraping of leather-shod
feet upon the rounds of a ship's monkey-ladder.
And yet, as far as he could see, there was no ship there--nor might
there be one within a thousand miles.
As he stood thus,
peering out into the darkness of the cloud-enshrouded night, there came to =
him
from across the water, like a slap in the face, so sudden and unexpected was
it, the sharp staccato of an exchange of shots and then the scream of a wom=
an.
Wounded though he was, and with the memory of his recent horrible experience still strong upon him, Tarzan of the Apes did not hesitate as the notes of that frightened cry rose shrill and piercing upon the still night air. With a bound he cleared the intervening= bush--there was a splash as the water closed about him--and then, with powerful strokes= , he swam out into the impenetrable night with no guide save the memory of an illusive cry, and for company the hideous denizens of an equatorial river.<= o:p>
The boat that had attracted Jane's atten=
tion
as she stood guard upon the deck of the Kincaid had been perceived by Rokoff
upon one bank and Mugambi and the horde upon the other. The cries of the Russian had brought t=
he
dugout first to him, and then, after a conference, it had been turned toward
the Kincaid, but before ever it covered half the distance between the shore=
and
the steamer a rifle had spoken from the latter's deck and one of the sailor=
s in
the bow of the canoe had crumpled and fallen into the water.
After that they w=
ent
more slowly, and presently, when Jane's rifle had found another member of t=
he
party, the canoe withdrew to the shore, where it lay as long as daylight
lasted.
The savage, snarl=
ing
pack upon the opposite shore had been directed in their pursuit by the black
warrior, Mugambi, chief of the Wagambi. Only he knew which might be foe and
which friend of their lost master.
Could they have
reached either the canoe or the Kincaid they would have made short work of =
any
whom they found there, but the gulf of black water intervening shut them off
from farther advance as effectually as though it had been the broad ocean t=
hat
separated them from their prey.
Mugambi knew
something of the occurrences which had led up to the landing of Tarzan upon
Jungle Island and the pursuit of the whites up the Ugambi. He knew that his savage master sought h=
is
wife and child who had been stolen by the wicked white man whom they had
followed far into the interior and now back to the sea.
He believed also =
that
this same man had killed the great white giant whom he had come to respect =
and
love as he had never loved the greatest chiefs of his own people. And so in the wild breast of Mugambi bu=
rned an
iron resolve to win to the side of the wicked one and wreak vengeance upon =
him
for the murder of the ape-man.
But when he saw t= he canoe come down the river and take in Rokoff, when he saw it make for the Kincaid, he realized that only by possessing himself of a canoe could he ho= pe to transport the beasts of the pack within striking distance of the enemy.<= o:p>
So it happened th=
at
even before Jane Clayton fired the first shot into Rokoff's canoe the beast=
s of
Tarzan had disappeared into the jungle.
After the Russian=
and
his party, which consisted of Paulvitch and the several men he had left upo=
n the
Kincaid to attend to the matter of coaling, had retreated before her fire, =
Jane
realized that it would be but a temporary respite from their attentions whi=
ch
she had gained, and with the conviction came a determination to make a bold=
and
final stroke for freedom from the menacing threat of Rokoff's evil purpose.=
With this idea in
view she opened negotiations with the two sailors she had imprisoned in the
forecastle, and having forced their consent to her plans, upon pain of death
should they attempt disloyalty, she released them just as darkness closed a=
bout
the ship.
With ready revolv=
er
to compel obedience, she let them up one by one, searching them carefully f=
or
concealed weapons as they stood with hands elevated above their heads. Once satisfied that they were unarmed, =
she set
them to work cutting the cable which held the Kincaid to her anchorage, for=
her
bold plan was nothing less than to set the steamer adrift and float with her
out into the open sea, there to trust to the mercy of the elements, which s=
he
was confident would be no more merciless than Nikolas Rokoff should he again
capture her.
There was, too, t=
he
chance that the Kincaid might be sighted by some passing ship, and as she w=
as
well stocked with provisions and water--the men had assured her of this
fact--and as the season of storm was well over, she had every reason to hope
for the eventual success of her plan.
The night was dee=
ply
overcast, heavy clouds riding low above the jungle and the water--only to t=
he
west, where the broad ocean spread beyond the river's mouth, was there a
suggestion of lessening gloom.
It was a perfect
night for the purposes of the work in hand.
Her enemies could=
not
see the activity aboard the ship nor mark her course as the swift current b=
ore
her outward into the ocean. Before=
daylight
broke the ebb-tide would have carried the Kincaid well into the Benguela
current which flows northward along the coast of Africa, and, as a south wi=
nd
was prevailing, Jane hoped to be out of sight of the mouth of the Ugambi be=
fore
Rokoff could become aware of the departure of the steamer.
Standing over the
labouring seamen, the young woman breathed a sigh of relief as the last str=
and
of the cable parted and she knew that the vessel was on its way out of the =
maw
of the savage Ugambi.
With her two
prisoners still beneath the coercing influence of her rifle, she ordered th=
em
upon deck with the intention of again imprisoning them in the forecastle; b=
ut
at length she permitted herself to be influenced by their promises of loyal=
ty
and the arguments which they put forth that they could be of service to her,
and permitted them to remain above.
For a few minutes=
the
Kincaid drifted rapidly with the current, and then, with a grinding jar, she
stopped in midstream. The ship ha=
d run upon
a low-lying bar that splits the channel about a quarter of a mile from the =
sea.
For a moment she =
hung
there, and then, swinging round until her bow pointed toward the shore, she
broke adrift once more.
At the same insta=
nt,
just as Jane Clayton was congratulating herself that the ship was once more
free, there fell upon her ears from a point up the river about where the
Kincaid had been anchored the rattle of musketry and a woman's scream--shri=
ll,
piercing, fear-laden.
The sailors heard=
the
shots with certain conviction that they announced the coming of their emplo=
yer,
and as they had no relish for the plan that would consign them to the deck =
of a
drifting derelict, they whispered together a hurried plan to overcome the y=
oung
woman and hail Rokoff and their companions to their rescue.
It seemed that fa=
te
would play into their hands, for with the reports of the guns Jane Clayton's
attention had been distracted from her unwilling assistants, and instead of
keeping one eye upon them as she had intended doing, she ran to the bow of =
the
Kincaid to peer through the darkness toward the source of the disturbance u=
pon
the river's bosom.
Seeing that she w=
as
off her guard, the two sailors crept stealthily upon her from behind.
The scraping upon=
the
deck of the shoes of one of them startled the girl to a sudden appreciation=
of
her danger, but the warning had come too late.
As she turned, bo=
th
men leaped upon her and bore her to the deck, and as she went down beneath =
them
she saw, outlined against the lesser gloom of the ocean, the figure of anot=
her
man clamber over the side of the Kincaid.
After all her pai=
ns
her heroic struggle for freedom had failed.
With a stifled sob she gave up the unequal battle.
When Mugambi had
turned back into the jungle with the pack he had a definite purpose in
view. It was to obtain a dugout
wherewith to transport the beasts of Tarzan to the side of the Kincaid. Nor was he long in coming upon the obje=
ct
which he sought.
Just at dusk he f=
ound
a canoe moored to the bank of a small tributary of the Ugambi at a point wh=
ere
he had felt certain that he should find one.
Without loss of t=
ime
he piled his hideous fellows into the craft and shoved out into the
stream. So quickly had they taken
possession of the canoe that the warrior had not noticed that it was alread=
y occupied. The huddled figure sleeping in the bott=
om had
entirely escaped his observation in the darkness of the night that had now =
fallen.
But no sooner were
they afloat than a savage growling from one of the apes directly ahead of h=
im
in the dugout attracted his attention to a shivering and cowering figure th=
at
trembled between him and the great anthropoid.
To Mugambi's astonishment he saw that it was a native woman. With difficulty he kept the ape from her
throat, and after a time succeeded in quelling her fears.
It seemed that she
had been fleeing from marriage with an old man she loathed and had taken re=
fuge
for the night in the canoe she had found upon the river's edge.
Mugambi did not w=
ish
her presence, but there she was, and rather than lose time by returning her=
to
the shore the black permitted her to remain on board the canoe.
As quickly as his
awkward companions could paddle the dugout down-stream toward the Ugambi and
the Kincaid they moved through the darkness.
It was with difficulty that Mugambi could make out the shadowy form =
of
the steamer, but as he had it between himself and the ocean it was much more
apparent than to one upon either shore of the river.
As he approached =
it
he was amazed to note that it seemed to be receding from him, and finally he
was convinced that the vessel was moving down-stream. Just as he was about to urge his creatu=
res to
renewed efforts to overtake the steamer the outline of another canoe burst =
suddenly
into view not three yards from the bow of his own craft.
At the same insta=
nt
the occupants of the stranger discovered the proximity of Mugambi's horde, =
but
they did not at first recognize the nature of the fearful crew. A man in the bow of the oncoming boat c=
hallenged
them just as the two dugouts were about to touch.
For answer came t=
he
menacing growl of a panther, and the fellow found himself gazing into the
flaming eyes of Sheeta, who had raised himself with his forepaws upon the b=
ow
of the boat, ready to leap in upon the occupants of the other craft.
Instantly Rokoff
realized the peril that confronted him and his fellows. He gave a quick command to fire upon the
occupants of the other canoe, and it was this volley and the scream of the
terrified native woman in the canoe with Mugambi that both Tarzan and Jane =
had heard.
Before the slower=
and
less skilled paddlers in Mugambi's canoe could press their advantage and ef=
fect
a boarding of the enemy the latter had turned swiftly down-stream and were
paddling for their lives in the direction of the Kincaid, which was now vis=
ible
to them.
The vessel after
striking upon the bar had swung loose again into a slow-moving eddy, which
returns up-stream close to the southern shore of the Ugambi only to circle =
out
once more and join the downward flow a hundred yards or so farther up. Thus the Kincaid was returning Jane Cla=
yton
directly into the hands of her enemies.
It so happened th=
at
as Tarzan sprang into the river the vessel was not visible to him, and as he
swam out into the night he had no idea that a ship drifted so close at
hand. He was guided by the sounds=
which
he could hear coming from the two canoes.
As he swam he had
vivid recollections of the last occasion upon which he had swum in the wate=
rs
of the Ugambi, and with them a sudden shudder shook the frame of the giant.=
But, though he tw=
ice
felt something brush his legs from the slimy depths below him, nothing seiz=
ed
him, and of a sudden he quite forgot about crocodiles in the astonishment of
seeing a dark mass loom suddenly before him where he had still expected to =
find
the open river.
So close was it t=
hat
a few strokes brought him up to the thing, when to his amazement his
outstretched hand came in contact with a ship's side.
As the agile ape-=
man
clambered over the vessel's rail there came to his sensitive ears the sound=
of
a struggle at the opposite side of the deck.
Noiselessly he sp=
ed
across the intervening space.
The moon had risen
now, and, though the sky was still banked with clouds, a lesser darkness
enveloped the scene than that which had blotted out all sight earlier in the
night. His keen eyes, therefore, s=
aw the
figures of two men grappling with a woman.
That it was the w=
oman
who had accompanied Anderssen toward the interior he did not know, though he
suspected as much, as he was now quite certain that this was the deck of the
Kincaid upon which chance had led him.
But he wasted lit=
tle
time in idle speculation. There wa=
s a
woman in danger of harm from two ruffians, which was enough excuse for the =
ape-man
to project his giant thews into the conflict without further investigation.=
The first that ei=
ther
of the sailors knew that there was a new force at work upon the ship was the
falling of a mighty hand upon a shoulder of each. As if they had been in the grip of a
fly-wheel, they were jerked suddenly from their prey.
"What means
this?" asked a low voice in their ears.
They were given no
time to reply, however, for at the sound of that voice the young woman had
sprung to her feet and with a little cry of joy leaped toward their assaila=
nt.
"Tarzan!&quo=
t;
she cried.
The ape-man hurled
the two sailors across the deck, where they rolled, stunned and terrified, =
into
the scuppers upon the opposite side, and with an exclamation of incredulity
gathered the girl into his arms.
Brief, however, w=
ere
the moments for their greeting.
Scarcely had they
recognized one another than the clouds above them parted to show the figure=
s of
a half-dozen men clambering over the side of the Kincaid to the steamer's d=
eck.
Foremost among th=
em
was the Russian. As the brilliant =
rays
of the equatorial moon lighted the deck, and he realized that the man befor=
e him
was Lord Greystoke, he screamed hysterical commands to his followers to fire
upon the two.
Tarzan pushed Jane
behind the cabin near which they had been standing, and with a quick bound
started for Rokoff. The men behin=
d the Russian,
at least two of them, raised their rifles and fired at the charging ape-man;
but those behind them were otherwise engaged--for up the monkey-ladder in t=
heir
rear was thronging a hideous horde.
First came five
snarling apes, huge, manlike beasts, with bared fangs and slavering jaws; a=
nd
after them a giant black warrior, his long spear gleaming in the moonlight.=
Behind him again
scrambled another creature, and of all the horrid horde it was this they mo=
st
feared--Sheeta, the panther, with gleaming jaws agape and fiery eyes blazin=
g at
them in the mightiness of his hate and of his blood lust.
The shots that had
been fired at Tarzan missed him, and he would have been upon Rokoff in anot=
her
instant had not the great coward dodged backward between his two henchmen, =
and,
screaming in hysterical terror, bolted forward toward the forecastle.
For the moment
Tarzan's attention was distracted by the two men before him, so that he cou=
ld
not at the time pursue the Russian.
About him the apes and Mugambi were battling with the balance of the
Russian's party.
Beneath the terri=
ble
ferocity of the beasts the men were soon scampering in all directions--those
who still lived to scamper, for the great fangs of the apes of Akut and the
tearing talons of Sheeta already had found more than a single victim.
Four, however,
escaped and disappeared into the forecastle, where they hoped to barricade
themselves against further assault.
Here they found Rokoff, and, enraged at his desertion of them in the=
ir
moment of peril, no less than at the uniformly brutal treatment it had been=
his
wont to accord them, they gloated upon the opportunity now offered them to
revenge themselves in part upon their hated employer.
Despite his praye=
rs
and grovelling pleas, therefore, they hurled him bodily out upon the deck,
delivering him to the mercy of the fearful things from which they had
themselves just escaped.
Tarzan saw the man
emerge from the forecastle--saw and recognized his enemy; but another saw h=
im
even as soon.
It was Sheeta, and
with grinning jaws the mighty beast slunk silently toward the terror-strick=
en
man.
When Rokoff saw what it was that stalked=
him
his shrieks for help filled the air, as with trembling knees he stood, as o=
ne
paralyzed, before the hideous death that was creeping upon him.
Tarzan took a step
toward the Russian, his brain burning with a raging fire of vengeance. At last he had the murderer of his son =
at his
mercy. His was the right to avenge=
.
Once Jane had sta=
yed
his hand that time that he sought to take the law into his own power and me=
te
to Rokoff the death that he had so long merited; but this time none should =
stay
him.
His fingers clenc=
hed
and unclenched spasmodically as he approached the trembling Russ, beastlike=
and
ominous as a brute of prey.
Presently he saw =
that
Sheeta was about to forestall him, robbing him of the fruits of his great h=
ate.
He called sharply=
to
the panther, and the words, as if they had broken a hideous spell that had =
held
the Russian, galvanized him into sudden action.
With a scream he turned and fled toward the bridge.
After him pounced
Sheeta the panther, unmindful of his master's warning voice.
Tarzan was about =
to
leap after the two when he felt a light touch upon his arm. Turning, he found Jane at his elbow.
"Do not leave
me," she whispered. "I am
afraid."
Tarzan glanced be=
hind
her.
All about were the
hideous apes of Akut. Some, even, =
were
approaching the young woman with bared fangs and menacing guttural warnings=
.
The ape-man warned
them back. He had forgotten for the
moment that these were but beasts, unable to differentiate his friends and =
his foes. Their savage natures were roused by the=
ir
recent battle with the sailors, and now all flesh outside the pack was meat=
to
them.
Tarzan turned aga=
in
toward the Russian, chagrined that he should have to forgo the pleasure of
personal revenge--unless the man should escape Sheeta. But as he looked he saw that there coul=
d be
no hope of that. The fellow had retreated to the end of the bridge, where he
now stood trembling and wide-eyed, facing the beast that moved slowly toward
him.
The panther crawl=
ed
with belly to the planking, uttering uncanny mouthings. Rokoff stood as though petrified, his e=
yes
protruding from their sockets, his mouth agape, and the cold sweat of terror
clammy upon his brow.
Below him, upon t=
he
deck, he had seen the great anthropoids, and so had not dared to seek escap=
e in
that direction. In fact, even now=
one
of the brutes was leaping to seize the bridge-rail and draw himself up to t=
he
Russian's side.
Before him was the
panther, silent and crouched.
Rokoff could not
move. His knees trembled. His voice broke in inarticulate shrieks=
. With a last piercing wail he sank to hi=
s knees--and
then Sheeta sprang.
Full upon the man=
's
breast the tawny body hurtled, tumbling the Russian to his back.
As the great fangs
tore at the throat and chest, Jane Clayton turned away in horror; but not so
Tarzan of the Apes. A cold smile o=
f satisfaction
touched his lips. The scar upon his
forehead that had burned scarlet faded to the normal hue of his tanned skin=
and
disappeared.
Rokoff fought
furiously but futilely against the growling, rending fate that had overtaken
him. For all his countless crimes =
he was
punished in the brief moment of the hideous death that claimed him at the l=
ast.
After his struggl=
es
ceased Tarzan approached, at Jane's suggestion, to wrest the body from the
panther and give what remained of it decent human burial; but the great cat
rose snarling above its kill, threatening even the master it loved in its
savage way, so that rather than kill his friend of the jungle, Tarzan was
forced to relinquish his intentions.
All that night
Sheeta, the panther, crouched upon the grisly thing that had been Nikolas
Rokoff. The bridge of the Kincaid =
was
slippery with blood. Beneath the
brilliant tropic moon the great beast feasted until, when the sun rose the
following morning, there remained of Tarzan's great enemy only gnawed and
broken bones.
Of the Russian's party, all were account=
ed for
except Paulvitch. Four were prison=
ers in
the Kincaid's forecastle. The rest=
were
dead.
With these men Ta=
rzan
got up steam upon the vessel, and with the knowledge of the mate, who happe=
ned
to be one of those surviving, he planned to set out in quest of Jungle Isla=
nd;
but as the morning dawned there came with it a heavy gale from the west whi=
ch
raised a sea into which the mate of the Kincaid dared not venture. All that day the ship lay within the sh=
elter
of the mouth of the river; for, though night witnessed a lessening of the w=
ind,
it was thought safer to wait for daylight before attempting the navigation =
of
the winding channel to the sea.
Upon the deck of =
the
steamer the pack wandered without let or hindrance by day, for they had soon
learned through Tarzan and Mugambi that they must harm no one upon the Kinc=
aid;
but at night they were confined below.
Tarzan's joy had =
been
unbounded when he learned from his wife that the little child who had died =
in
the village of M'ganwazam was not their son.
Who the baby could have been, or what had become of their own, they
could not imagine, and as both Rokoff and Paulvitch were gone, there was no=
way
of discovering.
There was, howeve=
r, a
certain sense of relief in the knowledge that they might yet hope. Until positive proof of the baby's death
reached them there was always that to buoy them up.
It seemed quite
evident that their little Jack had not been brought aboard the Kincaid. Anderssen would have known of it had su=
ch been
the case, but he had assured Jane time and time again that the little one he
had brought to her cabin the night he aided her to escape was the only one =
that
had been aboard the Kincaid since she lay at Dover.
As Jane and Tarzan
stood upon the vessel's deck recounting to one another the details of the
various adventures through which each had passed since they had parted in t=
heir
London home, there glared at them from beneath scowling brows a hidden watc=
her
upon the shore.
Through the man's
brain passed plan after plan whereby he might thwart the escape of the
Englishman and his wife, for so long as the vital spark remained within the
vindictive brain of Alexander Paulvitch none who had aroused the enmity of =
the
Russian might be entirely safe.
Plan after plan he
formed only to discard each either as impracticable, or unworthy the vengea=
nce
his wrongs demanded. So warped by
faulty reasoning was the criminal mind of Rokoff's lieutenant that he could=
not
grasp the real truth of that which lay between himself and the ape-man and =
see
that always the fault had been, not with the English lord, but with himself=
and
his confederate.
And at the reject=
ion
of each new scheme Paulvitch arrived always at the same conclusion--that he
could accomplish naught while half the breadth of the Ugambi separated him =
from
the object of his hatred.
But how was he to
span the crocodile-infested waters?
There was no canoe nearer than the Mosula village, and Paulvitch was
none too sure that the Kincaid would still be at anchor in the river when he
returned should he take the time to traverse the jungle to the distant vill=
age and
return with a canoe. Yet there was=
no
other way, and so, convinced that thus alone might he hope to reach his pre=
y,
Paulvitch, with a parting scowl at the two figures upon the Kincaid's deck,
turned away from the river.
Hastening through=
the
dense jungle, his mind centred upon his one fetich--revenge--the Russian fo=
rgot
even his terror of the savage world through which he moved.
Baffled and beate=
n at
every turn of Fortune's wheel, reacted upon time after time by his own mali=
gn
plotting, the principal victim of his own criminality, Paulvitch was yet so
blind as to imagine that his greatest happiness lay in a continuation of the
plottings and schemings which had ever brought him and Rokoff to disaster, =
and
the latter finally to a hideous death.
As the Russian
stumbled on through the jungle toward the Mosula village there presently
crystallized within his brain a plan which seemed more feasible than any th=
at
he had as yet considered.
He would come by
night to the side of the Kincaid, and once aboard, would search out the mem=
bers
of the ship's original crew who had survived the terrors of this frightful
expedition, and enlist them in an attempt to wrest the vessel from Tarzan a=
nd
his beasts.
In the cabin were
arms and ammunition, and hidden in a secret receptacle in the cabin table w=
as
one of those infernal machines, the construction of which had occupied much=
of
Paulvitch's spare time when he had stood high in the confidence of the
Nihilists of his native land.
That was before he
had sold them out for immunity and gold to the police of Petrograd. Paulvitch winced as he recalled the
denunciation of him that had fallen from the lips of one of his former comr=
ades
ere the poor devil expiated his political sins at the end of a hempen rope.=
But the infernal
machine was the thing to think of now.
He could do much with that if he could but get his hands upon it.
Paulvitch licked =
his
lips in anticipatory joy, and urged his tired legs to greater speed that he
might not be too late to the ship's anchorage to carry out his designs.
All depended, of
course, upon when the Kincaid departed.
The Russian realized that nothing could be accomplished beneath the
light of day. Darkness must shroud his approach to the ship's side, for sho=
uld
he be sighted by Tarzan or Lady Greystoke he would have no chance to board =
the
vessel.
The gale that was
blowing was, he believed, the cause of the delay in getting the Kincaid und=
er
way, and if it continued to blow until night then the chances were all in h=
is
favour, for he knew that there was little likelihood of the ape-man attempt=
ing
to navigate the tortuous channel of the Ugambi while darkness lay upon the
surface of the water, hiding the many bars and the numerous small islands w=
hich
are scattered over the expanse of the river's mouth.
It was well after
noon when Paulvitch came to the Mosula village upon the bank of the tributa=
ry
of the Ugambi. Here he was receiv=
ed
with suspicion and unfriendliness by the native chief, who, like all those =
who
came in contact with Rokoff or Paulvitch, had suffered in some manner from =
the
greed, the cruelty, or the lust of the two Muscovites.
When Paulvitch
demanded the use of a canoe the chief grumbled a surly refusal and ordered =
the
white man from the village. Surrou=
nded
by angry, muttering warriors who seemed to be but waiting some slight prete=
xt
to transfix him with their menacing spears the Russian could do naught else
than withdraw.
A dozen fighting =
men
led him to the edge of the clearing, leaving him with a warning never to sh=
ow
himself again in the vicinity of their village.
Stifling his ange=
r,
Paulvitch slunk into the jungle; but once beyond the sight of the warriors =
he
paused and listened intently. He c=
ould hear
the voices of his escort as the men returned to the village, and when he was
sure that they were not following him he wormed his way through the bushes =
to
the edge of the river, still determined some way to obtain a canoe.
Life itself depen=
ded
upon his reaching the Kincaid and enlisting the survivors of the ship's cre=
w in
his service, for to be abandoned here amidst the dangers of the African jun=
gle
where he had won the enmity of the natives was, he well knew, practically
equivalent to a sentence of death.
A desire for reve=
nge
acted as an almost equally powerful incentive to spur him into the face of
danger to accomplish his design, so that it was a desperate man that lay hi=
dden
in the foliage beside the little river searching with eager eyes for some s=
ign
of a small canoe which might be easily handled by a single paddle.
Nor had the Russi=
an
long to wait before one of the awkward little skiffs which the Mosula fashi=
on
came in sight upon the bosom of the river.
A youth was paddling lazily out into midstream from a point beside t=
he
village. When he reached the chann=
el he
allowed the sluggish current to carry him slowly along while he lolled
indolently in the bottom of his crude canoe.
All ignorant of t=
he
unseen enemy upon the river's bank the lad floated slowly down the stream w=
hile
Paulvitch followed along the jungle path a few yards behind him.
A mile below the
village the black boy dipped his paddle into the water and forced his skiff
toward the bank. Paulvitch, elate=
d by
the chance which had drawn the youth to the same side of the river as that
along
which he followed
rather than to the opposite side where he would have been beyond the stalke=
r's
reach, hid in the brush close beside the point at which it was evident the
skiff would touch the bank of the slow-moving stream, which seemed jealous =
of
each fleeting instant which drew it nearer to the broad and muddy Ugambi wh=
ere
it must for ever lose its identity in the larger stream that would presently
cast its waters into the great ocean.
Equally indolent =
were
the motions of the Mosula youth as he drew his skiff beneath an overhanging
limb of a great tree that leaned down to implant a farewell kiss upon the b=
osom
of the departing water, caressing with green fronds the soft breast of its
languorous love.
And, snake-like,
amidst the concealing foliage lay the malevolent Russ. Cruel, shifty eyes
gloated upon the outlines of the coveted canoe, and measured the stature of=
its
owner, while the crafty brain weighed the chances of the white man should
physical encounter with the black become necessary.
Only direct neces=
sity
could drive Alexander Paulvitch to personal conflict; but it was indeed dire
necessity which goaded him on to action now.
There was time, j=
ust
time enough, to reach the Kincaid by nightfall. Would the black fool never =
quit
his skiff? Paulvitch squirmed and =
fidgeted. The lad yawned and stretched. With exasperating deliberateness he ex=
amined
the arrows in his quiver, tested his bow, and looked to the edge upon the
hunting-knife in his loin-cloth.
Again he stretched
and yawned, glanced up at the river-bank, shrugged his shoulders, and lay d=
own
in the bottom of his canoe for a little nap before he plunged into the jung=
le
after the prey he had come forth to hunt.
Paulvitch half ro=
se,
and with tensed muscles stood glaring down upon his unsuspecting victim.
The Russian crept
stealthily nearer. A branch rustled
beneath his weight and the lad stirred in his sleep. Paulvitch drew his revolver and levelle=
d it
upon the black. For a moment he re=
mained
in rigid quiet, and then again the youth relapsed into undisturbed slumber.=
The white man cre=
pt
closer. He could not chance a shot=
until
there was no risk of missing. Pres=
ently
he leaned close above the Mosula. =
The cold
steel of the revolver in his hand insinuated itself nearer and nearer to the
breast of the unconscious lad. Now=
it
stopped but a few inches above the strongly beating heart.
But the pressure =
of a
finger lay between the harmless boy and eternity. The soft bloom of youth s=
till
lay upon the brown cheek, a smile half parted the beardless lips. Did any qualm of conscience point its d=
isquieting
finger of reproach at the murderer?
To all such was
Alexander Paulvitch immune. A sneer
curled his bearded lip as his forefinger closed upon the trigger of his
revolver. There was a loud report.=
A little hole appeared above the heart =
of the
sleeping boy, a little hole about which lay a blackened rim of powder-burned
flesh.
The youthful body
half rose to a sitting posture. The
smiling lips tensed to the nervous shock of a momentary agony which the
conscious mind never apprehended, and then the dead sank limply back into t=
hat deepest
of slumbers from which there is no awakening.
The killer dropped
quickly into the skiff beside the killed.
Ruthless hands seized the dead boy heartlessly and raised him to the=
low
gunwale. A little shove, a splash,=
some
widening ripples broken by the sudden surge of a dark, hidden body from the
slimy depths, and the coveted canoe was in the sole possession of the white
man--more savage than the youth whose life he had taken.
Casting off the t=
ie
rope and seizing the paddle, Paulvitch bent feverishly to the task of drivi=
ng
the skiff downward toward the Ugambi at top speed.
Night had fallen =
when
the prow of the bloodstained craft shot out into the current of the larger
stream. Constantly the Russian str=
ained
his eyes into the increasing darkness ahead in vain endeavour to pierce the=
black
shadows which lay between him and the anchorage of the Kincaid.
Was the ship still
riding there upon the waters of the Ugambi, or had the ape-man at last
persuaded himself of the safety of venturing forth into the abating storm?<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> As Paulvitch forged ahead with the curr=
ent he
asked himself these questions, and many more beside, not the least disquiet=
ing
of which were those which related to his future should it chance that the
Kincaid had already steamed away, leaving him to the merciless horrors of t=
he
savage wilderness.
In the darkness it
seemed to the paddler that he was fairly flying over the water, and he had
become convinced that the ship had left her moorings and that he had already
passed the spot at which she had lain earlier in the day, when there appear=
ed before
him beyond a projecting point which he had but just rounded the flickering
light from a ship's lantern.
Alexander Paulvit=
ch
could scarce restrain an exclamation of triumph. The Kincaid had not
departed! Life and vengeance were =
not to
elude him after all.
He stopped paddli=
ng
the moment that he descried the gleaming beacon of hope ahead of him. Silently he drifted down the muddy wate=
rs of
the Ugambi, occasionally dipping his paddle's blade gently into the current=
that
he might guide his primitive craft to the vessel's side.
As he approached =
more
closely the dark bulk of a ship loomed before him out of the blackness of t=
he
night. No sound came from the ves=
sel's deck. Paulvitch drifted, unseen, close to the
Kincaid's side. Only the momentary
scraping of his canoe's nose against the ship's planking broke the silence =
of
the night.
Trembling with
nervous excitement, the Russian remained motionless for several minutes; but
there was no sound from the great bulk above him to indicate that his coming
had been noted.
Stealthily he wor=
ked
his craft forward until the stays of the bowsprit were directly above him.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He could just reach them. To make his canoe fast there was the w=
ork of
but a minute or two, and then the man raised himself quietly aloft.
A moment later he
dropped softly to the deck. Though=
ts of
the hideous pack which tenanted the ship induced cold tremors along the spi=
ne
of the cowardly prowler; but life itself depended upon the success of his v=
enture,
and so he was enabled to steel himself to the frightful chances which lay
before him.
No sound or sign =
of
watch appeared upon the ship's deck.
Paulvitch crept stealthily toward the forecastle. All was silence. The hatch was raised, and as the man pe=
ered
downward he saw one of the Kincaid's crew reading by the light of the smoky
lantern depending from the ceiling of the crew's quarters.
Paulvitch knew the
man well, a surly cut-throat upon whom he figured strongly in the carrying =
out
of the plan which he had conceived. Gently the Russ lowered himself through=
the
aperture to the rounds of the ladder which led into the forecastle.
He kept his eyes
turned upon the reading man, ready to warn him to silence the moment that t=
he
fellow discovered him; but so deeply immersed was the sailor in the magazine
that the Russian came, unobserved, to the forecastle floor.
There he turned a=
nd
whispered the reader's name. The m=
an
raised his eyes from the magazine--eyes that went wide for a moment as they
fell upon the familiar countenance of Rokoff's lieutenant, only to narrow i=
nstantly
in a scowl of disapproval.
"The
devil!" he ejaculated. "=
Where
did you come from? We all thought =
you
were done for and gone where you ought to have gone a long time ago. His lordship will be mighty pleased to =
see
you."
Paulvitch crossed=
to
the sailor's side. A friendly smil=
e lay
on the Russian's lips, and his right hand was extended in greeting, as thou=
gh the
other might have been a dear and long lost friend. The sailor ignored the proffered hand, =
nor
did he return the other's smile.
"I've come to
help you," explained Paulvitch.
"I'm going to help you get rid of the Englishman and his
beasts--then there will be no danger from the law when we get back to
civilization. We can sneak in on =
them
while they sleep--that is Greystoke, his wife, and that black scoundrel,
Mugambi. Afterward it will be a si=
mple
matter to clean up the beasts. Whe=
re are
they?"
"They're
below," replied the sailor; "but just let me tell you something,
Paulvitch. You haven't got no more=
show
to turn us men against the Englishman than nothing. We had all we wanted of you and that ot=
her
beast. He's dead, an' if I don't m=
iss my
guess a whole lot you'll be dead too before long. You two treated us like dogs, and if y=
ou
think we got any love for you you better forget it."
"You mean to=
say
that you're going to turn against me?" demanded Paulvitch.
The other nodded,=
and
then after a momentary pause, during which an idea seemed to have occurred =
to
him, he spoke again.
"Unless,&quo=
t;
he said, "you can make it worth my while to let you go before the
Englishman finds you here."
"You wouldn't
turn me away in the jungle, would you?" asked Paulvitch. "Why, I'd
die there in a week."
"You'd have a
chance there," replied the sailor.
"Here, you wouldn't have no chance.
Why, if I woke up my maties here they'd probably cut your heart out =
of
you before the Englishman got a chance at you at all. It's mighty lucky for=
you
that I'm the one to be awake now and not none of the others."
"You're
crazy," cried Paulvitch.
"Don't you know that the Englishman will have you all hanged wh=
en
he gets you back where the law can get hold of you?"
"No, he won'=
t do
nothing of the kind," replied the sailor.
"He's told us as much, for he says that there wasn't nobody to
blame but you and Rokoff--the rest of us was just tools. See?"
For half an hour =
the
Russian pleaded or threatened as the mood seized him. Sometimes he was upon the verge of tear=
s, and
again he was promising his listener either fabulous rewards or condign
punishment; but the other was obdurate.
[condign: of equal value]
He made it plain =
to
the Russian that there were but two plans open to him--either he must conse=
nt
to being turned over immediately to Lord Greystoke, or he must pay to the
sailor, as a price for permission to quit the Kincaid unmolested, every cen=
t of
money and article of value upon his person and in his cabin.
"And you'll =
have
to make up your mind mighty quick," growled the man, "for I want =
to
turn in. Come now, choose--his lor=
dship
or the jungle?"
"You'll be s=
orry
for this," grumbled the Russian.
"Shut up,&qu=
ot;
admonished the sailor. "If yo=
u get
funny I may change my mind, and keep you here after all."
Now Paulvitch had=
no
intention of permitting himself to fall into the hands of Tarzan of the Ape=
s if
he could possibly avoid it, and while the terrors of the jungle appalled him
they were, to his mind, infinitely preferable to the certain death which he
knew he merited and for which he might look at the hands of the ape-man.
"Is anyone
sleeping in my cabin?" he asked.
The sailor shook =
his
head. "No," he said;
"Lord and Lady Greystoke have the captain's cabin. The mate is in his own, and there ain't=
no one
in yours."
"I'll go and=
get
my valuables for you," said Paulvitch.
"I'll go with
you to see that you don't try any funny business," said the sailor, an=
d he
followed the Russian up the ladder to the deck.
At the cabin entr=
ance
the sailor halted to watch, permitting Paulvitch to go alone to his cabin.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Here he gathered together his few belon=
gings that
were to buy him the uncertain safety of escape, and as he stood for a moment
beside the little table on which he had piled them he searched his brain for
some feasible plan either to ensure his safety or to bring revenge upon his
enemies.
And presently as =
he
thought there recurred to his memory the little black box which lay hidden =
in a
secret receptacle beneath a false top upon the table where his hand rested.=
The Russian's face
lighted to a sinister gleam of malevolent satisfaction as he stooped and fe=
lt
beneath the table top. A moment l=
ater
he withdrew from its hiding-place the thing he sought. He had lighted the lantern swinging fro=
m the
beams overhead that he might see to collect his belongings, and now he held=
the
black box well in the rays of the lamplight, while he fingered at the clasp
that fastened its lid.
The lifted cover
revealed two compartments within the box.
In one was a mechanism which resembled the works of a small clock. There also was a little battery of two =
dry
cells. A wire ran from the clockwo=
rk to one
of the poles of the battery, and from the other pole through the partition =
into
the other compartment, a second wire returning directly to the clockwork.
Whatever lay with=
in
the second compartment was not visible, for a cover lay over it and appeare=
d to
be sealed in place by asphaltum. I=
n the bottom
of the box, beside the clockwork, lay a key, and this Paulvitch now withdrew
and fitted to the winding stem.
Gently he turned =
the
key, muffling the noise of the winding operation by throwing a couple of
articles of clothing over the box. All
the time he listened intently for any sound which might indicate that the s=
ailor
or another were approaching his cabin; but none came to interrupt his work.=
When the winding =
was
completed the Russian set a pointer upon a small dial at the side of the
clockwork, then he replaced the cover upon the black box, and returned the
entire machine to its hiding-place in the table.
A sinister smile
curled the man's bearded lips as he gathered up his valuables, blew out the
lamp, and stepped from his cabin to the side of the waiting sailor.
"Here are my
things," said the Russian; "now let me go."
"I'll first =
take
a look in your pockets," replied the sailor. "You might have overlooked some
trifling thing that won't be of no use to you in the jungle, but that'll co=
me
in mighty handy to a poor sailorman in London.
Ah! just as I feared," he ejaculated an instant later as he wit=
hdrew
a roll of bank-notes from Paulvitch's inside coat pocket.
The Russian scowl=
ed,
muttering an imprecation; but nothing could be gained by argument, and so he
did his best to reconcile himself to his loss in the knowledge that the sai=
lor
would never reach London to enjoy the fruits of his thievery.
It was with
difficulty that Paulvitch restrained a consuming desire to taunt the man wi=
th a
suggestion of the fate that would presently overtake him and the other memb=
ers
of the Kincaid's company; but fearing to arouse the fellow's suspicions, he
crossed the deck and lowered himself in silence into his canoe.
A minute or two l=
ater
he was paddling toward the shore to be swallowed up in the darkness of the
jungle night, and the terrors of a hideous existence from which, could he h=
ave
had even a slight foreknowledge of what awaited him in the long years to co=
me,
he would have fled to the certain death of the open sea rather than endure =
it.
The sailor, having made sure that Paulvitch had departed, returned to the forecastle, where he= hid away his booty and turned into his bunk, while in the cabin that had belong= ed to the Russian there ticked on and on through the silences of the night the little mechanism in the small black box which held for the unconscious slee= pers upon the ill-starred Kincaid the coming vengeance of the thwarted Russian.<= o:p>
Shortly after the
break of day Tarzan was on deck noting the condition of the weather. The wind had abated. The sky was cloudless. Every condition seemed ideal for the
commencement of the return voyage to Jungle Island, where the beasts were t=
o be
left. And then--home!
The ape-man arous=
ed
the mate and gave instructions that the Kincaid sail at the earliest possib=
le
moment. The remaining members of =
the crew,
safe in Lord Greystoke's assurance that they would not be prosecuted for th=
eir
share in the villainies of the two Russians, hastened with cheerful alacrit=
y to
their several duties.
The beasts, liber=
ated
from the confinement of the hold, wandered about the deck, not a little to =
the
discomfiture of the crew in whose minds there remained a still vivid pictur=
e of
the savagery of the beasts in conflict with those who had gone to their dea=
ths
beneath the fangs and talons which even now seemed itching for the soft fle=
sh
of further prey.
Beneath the watch=
ful
eyes of Tarzan and Mugambi, however, Sheeta and the apes of Akut curbed the=
ir
desires, so that the men worked about the deck amongst them in far greater
security than they imagined.
At last the Kinca=
id
slipped down the Ugambi and ran out upon the shimmering waters of the
Atlantic. Tarzan and Jane Clayton
watched the verdure-clad shore-line receding in the ship's wake, and for on=
ce
the ape-man left his native soil without one single pang of regret.
No ship that sail=
ed
the seven seas could have borne him away from Africa to resume his search f=
or
his lost boy with half the speed that the Englishman would have desired, and
the slow-moving Kincaid seemed scarce to move at all to the impatient mind =
of
the bereaved father.
Yet the vessel ma= de progress even when she seemed to be standing still, and presently the low h= ills of Jungle Island became distinctly visible upon the western horizon ahead.<= o:p>
In the cabin of
Alexander Paulvitch the thing within the black box ticked, ticked, ticked, =
with
apparently unending monotony; but yet, second by second, a little arm which
protruded from the periphery of one of its wheels came nearer and nearer to
another little arm which projected from the hand which Paulvitch had set at=
a
certain point upon the dial beside the clockwork. When those two arms touched one another=
the
ticking of the mechanism would cease--for ever.
Jane and Tarzan s=
tood
upon the bridge looking out toward Jungle Island. The men were forward, also
watching the land grow upward out of the ocean.
The beasts had sought the shade of the galley, where they were curle=
d up
in sleep. All was quiet and peace=
upon
the ship, and upon the waters.
Suddenly, without
warning, the cabin roof shot up into the air, a cloud of dense smoke puffed=
far
above the Kincaid, there was a terrific explosion which shook the vessel fr=
om
stem to stern.
Instantly pandemo=
nium
broke loose upon the deck. The ape=
s of
Akut, terrified by the sound, ran hither and thither, snarling and growling=
. Sheeta
leaped here and there, screaming out his startled terror in hideous cries t=
hat
sent the ice of fear straight to the hearts of the Kincaid's crew.
Mugambi, too, was
trembling. Only Tarzan of the Apes=
and
his wife retained their composure.
Scarce had the debris settled than the ape-man was among the beasts,
quieting their fears, talking to them in low, pacific tones, stroking their
shaggy bodies, and assuring them, as only he could, that the immediate dang=
er
was over.
An examination of=
the
wreckage showed that their greatest danger, now, lay in fire, for the flames
were licking hungrily at the splintered wood of the wrecked cabin, and had
already found a foothold upon the lower deck through a great jagged hole wh=
ich
the explosion had opened.
By a miracle no
member of the ship's company had been injured by the blast, the origin of w=
hich
remained for ever a total mystery to all but one--the sailor who knew that
Paulvitch had been aboard the Kincaid and in his cabin the previous night.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He guessed the truth; but discretion s=
ealed
his lips. It would, doubtless, far=
e none
too well for the man who had permitted the arch enemy of them all aboard the
ship in the watches of the night, where later he might set an infernal mach=
ine
to blow them all to kingdom come. =
No,
the man decided that he would keep this knowledge to himself.
As the flames gai=
ned
headway it became apparent to Tarzan that whatever had caused the explosion=
had
scattered some highly inflammable substance upon the surrounding woodwork, =
for
the water which they poured in from the pump seemed rather to spread than to
extinguish the blaze.
Fifteen minutes a=
fter
the explosion great, black clouds of smoke were rising from the hold of the
doomed vessel. The flames had rea=
ched
the engine-room, and the ship no longer moved toward the shore. Her fate was as certain as though the w=
aters
had already closed above her charred and smoking remains.
"It is usele=
ss
to remain aboard her longer," remarked the ape-man to the mate. "There is no telling but there may=
be
other explosions, and as we cannot hope to save her, the safest thing which=
we
can do is to take to the boats without further loss of time and make
land."
Nor was there oth=
er
alternative. Only the sailors could
bring away any belongings, for the fire, which had not yet reached the
forecastle, had consumed all in the vicinity of the cabin which the explosi=
on
had not destroyed.
Two boats were
lowered, and as there was no sea the landing was made with infinite ease. Eager and anxious, the beasts of Tarzan
sniffed the familiar air of their native island as the small boats drew in =
toward
the beach, and scarce had their keels grated upon the sand than Sheeta and =
the
apes of Akut were over the bows and racing swiftly toward the jungle. A half-sad smile curved the lips of the
ape-man as he watched them go.
"Good-bye, my
friends," he murmured. "=
You
have been good and faithful allies, and I shall miss you."
"They will
return, will they not, dear?" asked Jane Clayton, at his side.
"They may and
they may not," replied the ape-man.
"They have been ill at ease since they were forced to accept so
many human beings into their confidence.
Mugambi and I alone affected them less, for he and I are, at best, b=
ut
half human. You, however, and the
members of the crew are far too civilized for my beasts--it is you whom they
are fleeing. Doubtless they feel =
that
they cannot trust themselves in the close vicinity of so much perfectly good
food without the danger that they may help themselves to a mouthful some ti=
me
by mistake."
Jane laughed. "I think they are just trying to e=
scape
you," she retorted. "You=
are
always making them stop something which they see no reason why they should =
not
do. Like little children they are
doubtless delighted at this opportunity to flee from the zone of parental d=
iscipline. If they come back, though, I hope they =
won't
come by night."
"Or come hun=
gry,
eh?" laughed Tarzan.
For two hours aft=
er
landing the little party stood watching the burning ship which they had
abandoned. Then there came faintly=
to
them from across the water the sound of a second explosion. The Kincaid settled rapidly almost
immediately thereafter, and sank within a few minutes.
The cause of the
second explosion was less a mystery than that of the first, the mate
attributing it to the bursting of the boilers when the flames had finally
reached them; but what had caused the first explosion was a subject of
considerable speculation among the stranded company.
The first
consideration of the party was to locate fresh water and make camp, for all
knew that their term of existence upon Jungle Island might be drawn out to
months, or even years.
Tarzan knew the
nearest water, and to this he immediately led the party. Here the men fell to work to construct
shelters and rude furniture while Tarzan went into the jungle after meat,
leaving the faithful Mugambi and the Mosula woman to guard Jane, whose safe=
ty
he would never trust to any member of the Kincaid's cut-throat crew.
Lady Greystoke
suffered far greater anguish than any other of the castaways, for the blow =
to
her hopes and her already cruelly lacerated mother-heart lay not in her own
privations but in the knowledge that she might now never be able to learn t=
he
fate of her first-born or do aught to discover his whereabouts, or ameliora=
te
his condition--a condition which imagination naturally pictured in the most
frightful forms.
For two weeks the
party divided the time amongst the various duties which had been allotted to
each. A daylight watch was maintai=
ned
from sunrise to sunset upon a bluff near the camp--a jutting shoulder of ro=
ck
which overlooked the sea. Here, re=
ady
for instant lighting, was gathered a huge pile of dry branches, while from a
lofty pole which they had set in the ground there floated an improvised
distress signal fashioned from a red undershirt which belonged to the mate =
of
the Kincaid.
But never a speck
upon the horizon that might be sail or smoke rewarded the tired eyes that in
their endless, hopeless vigil strained daily out across the vast expanse of
ocean.
It was Tarzan who
suggested, finally, that they attempt to construct a vessel that would bear
them back to the mainland. He alo=
ne
could show them how to fashion rude tools, and when the idea had taken root=
in
the minds of the men they were eager to commence their labours.
But as time went =
on
and the Herculean nature of their task became more and more apparent they f=
ell
to grumbling, and to quarrelling among themselves, so that to the other dan=
gers
were now added dissension and suspicion.
More than before =
did
Tarzan now fear to leave Jane among the half brutes of the Kincaid's crew; =
but
hunting he must do, for none other could so surely go forth and return with
meat as he. Sometimes Mugambi spel=
led
him at the hunting; but the black's spear and arrows were never so sure of
results as the rope and knife of the ape-man.
Finally the men
shirked their work, going off into the jungle by twos to explore and to
hunt. All this time the camp had h=
ad no
sight of Sheeta, or Akut and the other great apes, though Tarzan had someti=
mes met
them in the jungle as he hunted.
And as matters te=
nded
from bad to worse in the camp of the castaways upon the east coast of Jungle
Island, another camp came into being upon the north coast.
Here, in a little
cove, lay a small schooner, the Cowrie, whose decks had but a few days since
run red with the blood of her officers and the loyal members of her crew, f=
or
the Cowrie had fallen upon bad days when it had shipped such men as Gust and
Momulla the Maori and that arch-fiend Kai Shang of Fachan.
There were others,
too, ten of them all told, the scum of the South Sea ports; but Gust and
Momulla and Kai Shang were the brains and cunning of the company. It was they who had instigated the muti=
ny
that they might seize and divide the catch of pearls which constituted the
wealth of the Cowrie's cargo.
It was Kai Shang =
who
had murdered the captain as he lay asleep in his berth, and it had been Mom=
ulla
the Maori who had led the attack upon the officer of the watch.
Gust, after his o=
wn
peculiar habit, had found means to delegate to the others the actual taking=
of
life. Not that Gust entertained an=
y scruples
on the subject, other than those which induced in him a rare regard for his=
own
personal safety. There is always a
certain element of risk to the assassin, for victims of deadly assault are
seldom prone to die quietly and considerately.
There is always a certain element of risk to go so far as to dispute=
the
issue with the murderer. It was th=
is
chance of dispute which Gust preferred to forgo.
But now that the =
work
was done the Swede aspired to the position of highest command among the
mutineers. He had even gone so far=
as to
appropriate and wear certain articles belonging to the murdered captain of =
the
Cowrie--articles of apparel which bore upon them the badges and insignia of
authority.
Kai Shang was pee=
ved. He had no love for authority, and certa=
inly
not the slightest intention of submitting to the domination of an ordinary =
Swede
sailor.
The seeds of
discontent were, therefore, already planted in the camp of the mutineers of=
the
Cowrie at the north edge of Jungle Island.
But Kai Shang realized that he must act with circumspection, for Gust
alone of the motley horde possessed sufficient knowledge of navigation to g=
et them
out of the South Atlantic and around the cape into more congenial waters wh=
ere
they might find a market for their ill-gotten wealth, and no questions aske=
d.
The day before th=
ey
sighted Jungle Island and discovered the little land-locked harbour upon the
bosom of which the Cowrie now rode quietly at anchor, the watch had discove=
red
the smoke and funnels of a warship upon the southern horizon.
The chance of bei=
ng
spoken to and investigated by a man-of-war appealed not at all to any of th=
em,
so they put into hiding for a few days until the danger should have passed.=
And now Gust did =
not
wish to venture out to sea again. There
was no telling, he insisted, but that the ship they had seen was actually s=
earching
for them. Kai Shang pointed out th=
at
such could not be the case since it was impossible for any human being other
than themselves to have knowledge of what had transpired aboard the Cowrie.=
But Gust was not =
to
be persuaded. In his wicked heart =
he
nursed a scheme whereby he might increase his share of the booty by somethi=
ng like
one hundred per cent. He alone cou=
ld
sail the Cowrie, therefore the others could not leave Jungle Island without
him; but what was there to prevent Gust, with just sufficient men to man the
schooner, slipping away from Kai Shang, Momulla the Maori, and some half of=
the
crew when opportunity presented?
It was for this
opportunity that Gust waited. Some=
day
there would come a moment when Kai Shang, Momulla, and three or four of the
others would be absent from camp, exploring or hunting. The Swede racked his brain for some plan
whereby he might successfully lure from the sight of the anchored ship those
whom he had determined to abandon.
To this end he
organized hunting party after hunting party, but always the devil of perver=
sity
seemed to enter the soul of Kai Shang, so that wily celestial would never h=
unt
except in the company of Gust himself.
One day Kai Shang
spoke secretly with Momulla the Maori, pouring into the brown ear of his
companion the suspicions which he harboured concerning the Swede. Momulla was for going immediately and r=
unning
a long knife through the heart of the traitor.
It is true that K=
ai
Shang had no other evidence than the natural cunning of his own knavish
soul--but he imagined in the intentions of Gust what he himself would have =
been
glad to accomplish had the means lain at hand.
But he dared not =
let
Momulla slay the Swede, upon whom they depended to guide them to their
destination. They decided, howeve=
r,
that it would do no harm to attempt to frighten Gust into acceding to their
demands, and with this purpose in mind the Maori sought out the
self-constituted commander of the party.
When he broached =
the
subject of immediate departure Gust again raised his former objection--that=
the
warship might very probably be patrolling the sea directly in their southern
path, waiting for them to make the attempt to reach other waters.
Momulla scoffed at
the fears of his fellow, pointing out that as no one aboard any warship kne=
w of
their mutiny there could be no reason why they should be suspected.
"Ah!"
exclaimed Gust, "there is where you are wrong. There is where you are lucky that you h=
ave an
educated man like me to tell you what to do.
You are an ignorant savage, Momulla, and so you know nothing of wire=
less."
The Maori leaped =
to
his feet and laid his hand upon the hilt of his knife.
"I am no sav=
age,"
he shouted.
"I was only
joking," the Swede hastened to explain.
"We are old friends, Momulla; we cannot afford to quarrel, at l=
east
not while old Kai Shang is plotting to steal all the pearls from us. If he could find a man to navigate the =
Cowrie
he would leave us in a minute. All=
his
talk about getting away from here is just because he has some scheme in his
head to get rid of us."
"But the
wireless," asked Momulla.
"What has the wireless to do with our remaining here?"
"Oh yes,&quo=
t;
replied Gust, scratching his head. He
was wondering if the Maori were really so ignorant as to believe the
preposterous lie he was about to unload upon him. "Oh yes!
You see every warship is equipped with what they call a wireless
apparatus. It lets them talk to ot=
her ships
hundreds of miles away, and it lets them listen to all that is said on these
other ships. Now, you see, when you
fellows were shooting up the Cowrie you did a whole lot of loud talking, and
there isn't any doubt but that that warship was a-lyin' off south of us lis=
tenin'
to it all. Of course they might no=
t have
learned the name of the ship, but they heard enough to know that the crew of
some ship was mutinying and killin' her officers. So you see they'll be waiting to search=
every
ship they sight for a long time to come, and they may not be far away
now."
When he had ceased
speaking the Swede strove to assume an air of composure that his listener m=
ight
not have his suspicions aroused as to the truth of the statements that had =
just
been made.
Momulla sat for s=
ome
time in silence, eyeing Gust. At l=
ast he
rose.
"You are a g=
reat
liar," he said. "If you =
don't
get us on our way by tomorrow you'll never have another chance to lie, for I
heard two of the men saying that they'd like to run a knife into you and th=
at
if you kept them in this hole any longer they'd do it."
"Go and ask =
Kai
Shang if there is not a wireless," replied Gust. "He will tell you that there is su=
ch a
thing and that vessels can talk to one another across hundreds of miles of
water. Then say to the two men wh=
o wish
to kill me that if they do so they will never live to spend their share of =
the
swag, for only I can get you safely to any port."
So Momulla went to
Kai Shang and asked him if there was such an apparatus as a wireless by mea=
ns
of which ships could talk with each other at great distances, and Kai Shang
told him that there was.
Momulla was puzzl=
ed;
but still he wished to leave the island, and was willing to take his chance=
s on
the open sea rather than to remain longer in the monotony of the camp.
"If we only =
had
someone else who could navigate a ship!" wailed Kai Shang.
That afternoon
Momulla went hunting with two other Maoris.
They hunted toward the south, and had not gone far from camp when th=
ey
were surprised by the sound of voices ahead of them in the jungle.
They knew that no=
ne
of their own men had preceded them, and as all were convinced that the isla=
nd
was uninhabited, they were inclined to flee in terror on the hypothesis that
the place was haunted--possibly by the ghosts of the murdered officers and =
men
of the Cowrie.
But Momulla was e=
ven
more curious than he was superstitious, and so he quelled his natural desir=
e to
flee from the supernatural. Motion=
ing his
companions to follow his example, he dropped to his hands and knees, crawli=
ng
forward stealthily and with quakings of heart through the jungle in the
direction from which came the voices of the unseen speakers.
Presently, at the
edge of a little clearing, he halted, and there he breathed a deep sigh of
relief, for plainly before him he saw two flesh-and-blood men sitting upon a
fallen log and talking earnestly together.
One was Schneider,
mate of the Kincaid, and the other was a seaman named Schmidt.
"I think we =
can
do it, Schmidt," Schneider was saying.
"A good canoe wouldn't be hard to build, and three of us could
paddle it to the mainland in a day if the wind was right and the sea reason=
ably
calm. There ain't no use waiting for the men to build a big enough boat to =
take
the whole party, for they're sore now and sick of working like slaves all d=
ay
long. It ain't none of our busine=
ss
anyway to save the Englishman. Le=
t him
look out for himself, says I." He
paused for a moment, and then eyeing the other to note the effect of his ne=
xt
words, he continued, "But we might take the woman. It would be a shame to leave a nice-loo=
kin'
piece like she is in such a Gott-forsaken hole as this here island."
Schmidt looked up=
and
grinned.
"So that's h=
ow
she's blowin', is it?" he asked.
"Why didn't you say so in the first place? Wot's in it for me if I help you?"=
"She ought to
pay us well to get her back to civilization," explained Schneider,
"an' I tell you what I'll do. I'll
just whack up with the two men that helps me.
I'll take half an' they can divide the other half--you an' whoever t=
he
other bloke is. I'm sick of this p=
lace,
an' the sooner I get out of it the better I'll like it. What do you say?"
"Suits me,&q=
uot;
replied Schmidt. "I wouldn't =
know
how to reach the mainland myself, an' know that none o' the other fellows w=
ould,
so's you're the only one that knows anything of navigation you're the fello=
w I'll
tie to."
Momulla the Maori
pricked up his ears. He had a smat=
tering
of every tongue that is spoken upon the seas, and more than a few times had=
he sailed
on English ships, so that he understood fairly well all that had passed bet=
ween
Schneider and Schmidt since he had stumbled upon them.
He rose to his fe=
et
and stepped into the clearing. Sch=
neider
and his companion started as nervously as though a ghost had risen before t=
hem.
Schneider reached for his revolver.
Momulla raised his right hand, palm forward, as a sign of his pacific
intentions.
"I am a
friend," he said. "I hea=
rd
you; but do not fear that I will reveal what you have said. I can help you, and you can help me.&qu=
ot; He was addressing Schneider. "You can navigate a ship, but you =
have
no ship. We have a ship, but no on=
e to
navigate it. If you will come with=
us
and ask no questions we will let you take the ship where you will after you
have landed us at a certain port, the name of which we will give you
later. You can take the woman of w=
hom
you speak, and we will ask no questions either.
Is it a bargain?"
Schneider desired
more information, and got as much as Momulla thought best to give him. Then the Maori suggested that they spea=
k with
Kai Shang. The two members of the
Kincaid's company followed Momulla and his fellows to a point in the jungle
close by the camp of the mutineers.
Here Momulla hid them while he went in search of Kai Shang, first
admonishing his Maori companions to stand guard over the two sailors lest t=
hey
change their minds and attempt to escape. Schneider and Schmidt were virtua=
lly
prisoners, though they did not know it.
Presently Momulla
returned with Kai Shang, to whom he had briefly narrated the details of the
stroke of good fortune that had come to them.
The Chinaman spoke at length with Schneider, until, notwithstanding =
his
natural suspicion of the sincerity of all men, he became quite convinced th=
at
Schneider was quite as much a rogue as himself and that the fellow was anxi=
ous
to leave the island.
These two premises
accepted there could be little doubt that Schneider would prove trustworthy=
in
so far as accepting the command of the Cowrie was concerned; after that Kai
Shang knew that he could find means to coerce the man into submission to his
further wishes.
When Schneider and
Schmidt left them and set out in the direction of their own camp, it was wi=
th
feelings of far greater relief than they had experienced in many a day. Now at last they saw a feasible plan f=
or
leaving the island upon a seaworthy craft.
There would be no more hard labour at ship-building, and no risking
their lives upon a crudely built makeshift that would be quite as likely to=
go
to the bottom as it would to reach the mainland.
Also, they were to
have assistance in capturing the woman, or rather women, for when Momulla h=
ad
learned that there was a black woman in the other camp he had insisted that=
she
be brought along as well as the white woman.
As Kai Shang and =
Momulla
entered their camp, it was with a realization that they no longer needed
Gust. They marched straight to th=
e tent
in which they might expect to find him at that hour of the day, for though =
it
would have been more comfortable for the entire party to remain aboard the
ship, they had mutually decided that it would be safer for all concerned we=
re
they to pitch their camp ashore.
Each knew that in=
the
heart of the others was sufficient treachery to make it unsafe for any memb=
er
of the party to go ashore leaving the others in possession of the Cowrie, so
not more than two or three men at a time were ever permitted aboard the ves=
sel
unless all the balance of the company was there too.
As the two crossed
toward Gust's tent the Maori felt the edge of his long knife with one grimy,
calloused thumb. The Swede would =
have
felt far from comfortable could he have seen this significant action, or re=
ad
what was passing amid the convolutions of the brown man's cruel brain.
Now it happened t=
hat
Gust was at that moment in the tent occupied by the cook, and this tent sto=
od
but a few feet from his own. So th=
at he heard
the approach of Kai Shang and Momulla, though he did not, of course, dream =
that
it had any special significance for him.
Chance had it,
though, that he glanced out of the doorway of the cook's tent at the very
moment that Kai Shang and Momulla approached the entrance to his, and he
thought that he noted a stealthiness in their movements that comported poor=
ly
with amicable or friendly intentions, and then, just as they two slunk with=
in
the interior, Gust caught a glimpse of the long knife which Momulla the Mao=
ri
was then carrying behind his back.
The Swede's eyes
opened wide, and a funny little sensation assailed the roots of his hairs.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Also he turned almost white beneath his=
tan. Quite
precipitately he left the cook's tent.
He was not one who required a detailed exposition of intentions that
were quite all too obvious.
As surely as thou=
gh
he had heard them plotting, he knew that Kai Shang and Momulla had come to =
take
his life. The knowledge that he a=
lone could
navigate the Cowrie had, up to now, been sufficient assurance of his safety;
but quite evidently something had occurred of which he had no knowledge that
would make it quite worth the while of his co-conspirators to eliminate him=
.
Without a pause G=
ust
darted across the beach and into the jungle.
He was afraid of the jungle; uncanny noises that were indeed frightf=
ul came
forth from its recesses--the tangled mazes of the mysterious country back of
the beach.
But if Gust was
afraid of the jungle he was far more afraid of Kai Shang and Momulla. The dangers of the jungle were more or =
less problematical,
while the danger that menaced him at the hands of his companions was a
perfectly well-known quantity, which might be expressed in terms of a few
inches of cold steel, or the coil of a light rope. He had seen Kai Shang garrotte a man at
Pai-sha in a dark alleyway back of Loo Kotai's place. He feared the rope, therefore, more tha=
n he
did the knife of the Maori; but he feared them both too much to remain with=
in
reach of either. Therefore he chos=
e the
pitiless jungle.
In Tarzan's camp,=
by
dint of threats and promised rewards, the ape-man had finally succeeded in
getting the hull of a large skiff almost completed. Much of the work he and Mugambi had don=
e with
their own hands in addition to furnishing the camp with meat.
Schneider, the ma=
te,
had been doing considerable grumbling, and had at last openly deserted the =
work
and gone off into the jungle with Schmidt to hunt. He said that he wanted a rest, and Tarz=
an,
rather than add to the unpleasantness which already made camp life almost
unendurable, had permitted the two men to depart without a remonstrance.
Upon the following
day, however, Schneider affected a feeling of remorse for his action, and s=
et
to work with a will upon the skiff. Schmidt also worked good-naturedly, and
Lord Greystoke congratulated himself that at last the men had awakened to t=
he
necessity for the labour which was being asked of them and to their obligat=
ions
to the balance of the party.
It was with a fee=
ling
of greater relief than he had experienced for many a day that he set out th=
at
noon to hunt deep in the jungle for a herd of small deer which Schneider
reported that he and Schmidt had seen there the day before.
The direction in
which Schneider had reported seeing the deer was toward the south-west, and=
to
that point the ape-man swung easily through the tangled verdure of the fore=
st.
And as he went th=
ere
approached from the north a half-dozen ill-featured men who went stealthily
through the jungle as go men bent upon the commission of a wicked act.
They thought that
they travelled unseen; but behind them, almost from the moment they quitted
their own camp, a tall man crept upon their trail. In the man's eyes were hate and fear, a=
nd a
great curiosity. Why went Kai Shang and Momulla and the others thus stealth=
ily
toward the south? What did they ex=
pect
to find there? Gust shook his low-=
browed
head in perplexity. But he would
know. He would follow them and lea=
rn
their plans, and then if he could thwart them he would--that went without
question.
At first he had
thought that they searched for him; but finally his better judgment assured=
him
that such could not be the case, since they had accomplished all they really
desired by chasing him out of camp. Never would Kai Shang or Momulla go to =
such
pains to slay him or another unless it would put money into their pockets, =
and
as Gust had no money it was evident that they were searching for someone el=
se.
Presently the par=
ty
he trailed came to a halt. Its mem=
bers
concealed themselves in the foliage bordering the game trail along which th=
ey
had come. Gust, that he might the =
better
observe, clambered into the branches of a tree to the rear of them, being
careful that the leafy fronds hid him from the view of his erstwhile mates.=
He had not long to
wait before he saw a strange white man approach carefully along the trail f=
rom
the south.
At sight of the
new-comer Momulla and Kai Shang arose from their places of concealment and
greeted him. Gust could not overhe=
ar
what passed between them. Then the=
man
returned in the direction from which he had come.
He was
Schneider. Nearing his camp he cir=
cled
to the opposite side of it, and presently came running in breathlessly. Excitedly he hastened to Mugambi.
"Quick!"=
; he
cried. "Those apes of yours h=
ave
caught Schmidt and will kill him if we do not hasten to his aid. You alone can call them off. Take Jones=
and
Sullivan--you may need help--and get to him as quick as you can. Follow the game trail south for about a
mile. I will remain here. I am too spent with running to go back =
with
you," and the mate of the Kincaid threw himself upon the ground, panti=
ng
as though he was almost done for.
Mugambi
hesitated. He had been left to gua=
rd the
two women. He did not know what t=
o do,
and then Jane Clayton, who had heard Schneider's story, added her pleas to
those of the mate.
"Do not
delay," she urged. "We s=
hall
be all right here. Mr. Schneider =
will
remain with us. Go, Mugambi. The poor fellow must be saved."
Schmidt, who lay
hidden in a bush at the edge of the camp, grinned. Mugambi, heeding the
commands of his mistress, though still doubtful of the wisdom of his action=
, started
off toward the south, with Jones and Sullivan at his heels.
No sooner had he
disappeared than Schmidt rose and darted north into the jungle, and a few
minutes later the face of Kai Shang of Fachan appeared at the edge of the
clearing. Schneider saw the Chinam=
an,
and motioned to him that the coast was clear.
Jane Clayton and =
the
Mosula woman were sitting at the opening of the former's tent, their backs
toward the approaching ruffians. T=
he
first intimation that either had of the presence of strangers in camp was t=
he sudden
appearance of a half-dozen ragged villains about them.
"Come!"
said Kai Shang, motioning that the two arise and follow him.
Jane Clayton spra=
ng
to her feet and looked about for Schneider, only to see him standing behind=
the
newcomers, a grin upon his face. A=
t his side
stood Schmidt. Instantly she saw t=
hat
she had been made the victim of a plot.
"What is the
meaning of this?" she asked, addressing the mate.
"It means th=
at
we have found a ship and that we can now escape from Jungle Island,"
replied the man.
"Why did you
send Mugambi and the others into the jungle?" she inquired.
"They are not
coming with us--only you and I, and the Mosula woman."
"Come!"
repeated Kai Shang, and seized Jane Clayton's wrist.
One of the Maoris
grasped the black woman by the arm, and when she would have screamed struck=
her
across the mouth.
Mugambi raced thr=
ough
the jungle toward the south. Jones=
and
Sullivan trailed far behind. For a=
mile
he continued upon his way to the relief of Schmidt, but no signs saw he of =
the
missing man or of any of the apes of Akut.
At last he halted=
and
called aloud the summons which he and Tarzan had used to hail the great
anthropoids. There was no response=
. Jones and Sullivan came up with the bla=
ck
warrior as the latter stood voicing his weird call. For another half-mile the black searche=
d,
calling occasionally.
Finally the truth
flashed upon him, and then, like a frightened deer, he wheeled and dashed b=
ack
toward camp. Arriving there, it w=
as but
a moment before full confirmation of his fears was impressed upon him. Lady
Greystoke and the Mosula woman were gone.
So, likewise, was Schneider.
When Jones and
Sullivan joined Mugambi he would have killed them in his anger, thinking th=
em
parties to the plot; but they finally succeeded in partially convincing him
that they had known nothing of it.
As they stood
speculating upon the probable whereabouts of the women and their abductor, =
and
the purpose which Schneider had in mind in taking them from camp, Tarzan of=
the
Apes swung from the branches of a tree and crossed the clearing toward them=
.
His keen eyes
detected at once that something was radically wrong, and when he had heard
Mugambi's story his jaws clicked angrily together as he knitted his brows in
thought.
What could the ma=
te
hope to accomplish by taking Jane Clayton from a camp upon a small island f=
rom
which there was no escape from the vengeance of Tarzan? The ape-man could not believe the fello=
w such
a fool, and then a slight realization of the truth dawned upon him.
Schneider would n=
ot
have committed such an act unless he had been reasonably sure that there wa=
s a
way by which he could quit Jungle Island with his prisoners. But why had he taken the black woman as=
well? There must have been others, one of whom
wanted the dusky female.
"Come,"
said Tarzan, "there is but one thing to do now, and that is to follow =
the
trail."
As he finished
speaking a tall, ungainly figure emerged from the jungle north of the
camp. He came straight toward the =
four
men. He was an entire stranger to =
all of
them, not one of whom had dreamed that another human being than those of th=
eir
own camp dwelt upon the unfriendly shores of Jungle Island.
It was Gust. He came directly to the point.
"Your women =
were
stolen," he said. "If yo=
u want
ever to see them again, come quickly and follow me. If we do not hurry the Cowrie will be
standing out to sea by the time we reach her anchorage."
"Who are
you?" asked Tarzan. "Wha=
t do
you know of the theft of my wife and the black woman?"
"I heard Kai
Shang and Momulla the Maori plot with two men of your camp. They had chased me from our camp, and w=
ould
have killed me. Now I will get eve=
n with
them. Come!"
Gust led the four=
men
of the Kincaid's camp at a rapid trot through the jungle toward the north.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Would they come to the sea in time? But a few more minutes would answer the
question.
And when at last =
the
little party did break through the last of the screening foliage, and the
harbour and the ocean lay before them, they realized that fate had been mos=
t cruelly
unkind, for the Cowrie was already under sail and moving slowly out of the
mouth of the harbour into the open sea.
What were they to
do? Tarzan's broad chest rose and =
fell
to the force of his pent emotions. The
last blow seemed to have fallen, and if ever in all his life Tarzan of the =
Apes
had had occasion to abandon hope it was now that he saw the ship bearing his
wife to some frightful fate moving gracefully over the rippling water, so v=
ery
near and yet so hideously far away.
In silence he sto=
od
watching the vessel. He saw it turn
toward the east and finally disappear around a headland on its way he knew =
not whither. Then he dropped upon his haunches and b=
uried
his face in his hands.
It was after dark
that the five men returned to the camp on the east shore. The night was hot and sultry. No slightest breeze ruffled the foliage=
of
the trees or rippled the mirror-like surface of the ocean. Only a gentle sw=
ell
rolled softly in upon the beach.
Never had Tarzan =
seen
the great Atlantic so ominously at peace.
He was standing at the edge of the beach gazing out to sea in the
direction of the mainland, his mind filled with sorrow and hopelessness, wh=
en
from the jungle close behind the camp came the uncanny wail of a panther.
There was a famil=
iar
note in the weird cry, and almost mechanically Tarzan turned his head and
answered. A moment later the tawny
figure of Sheeta slunk out into the half-light of the beach. There was no moon, but the sky was bril=
liant
with stars. Silently the savage br=
ute came
to the side of the man. It had bee=
n long
since Tarzan had seen his old fighting companion, but the soft purr was
sufficient to assure him that the animal still recalled the bonds which had
united them in the past.
The ape-man let h=
is
fingers fall upon the beast's coat, and as Sheeta pressed close against his=
leg
he caressed and fondled the wicked head while his eyes continued to search =
the
blackness of the waters.
Presently he
started. What was that? He strained his eyes into the night.
"Look!"
cried Tarzan. "A light! A ship's light! It must be the Cowrie. They are becalmed." And then with an exclamation of renewed=
hope,
"We can reach them! The skiff=
will
carry us easily."
Gust demurred.
"There are s=
ix
now," replied Tarzan, pointing to Sheeta, "and we can have more s=
till
in a half-hour. Sheeta is the equi=
valent
of twenty men, and the few others I can bring will add full a hundred to ou=
r fighting
strength. You do not know them.&qu=
ot;
The ape-man turned and raised his head toward the jungle, while there pealed from his lips, ti= me after time, the fearsome cry of the bull-ape who would summon his fellows.<= o:p>
Presently from the
jungle came an answering cry, and then another and another. Gust shuddered. Among what sort of creatures had fate t=
hrown him?
Were not Kai Shang and Momulla to =
be
preferred to this great white giant who stroked a panther and called to the
beasts of the jungle?
In a few minutes =
the
apes of Akut came crashing through the underbrush and out upon the beach, w=
hile
in the meantime the five men had been struggling with the unwieldy bulk of =
the
skiff's hull.
By dint of Hercul=
ean
efforts they had managed to get it to the water's edge. The oars from the two small boats of the
Kincaid, which had been washed away by an off-shore wind the very night that
the party had landed, had been in use to support the canvas of the sailcloth
tents. These were hastily requisitioned, and by the time Akut and his follo=
wers
came down to the water all was ready for embarkation.
Once again the
hideous crew entered the service of their master, and without question took=
up
their places in the skiff. The fo=
ur
men, for Gust could not be prevailed upon to accompany the party, fell to t=
he oars,
using them paddle-wise, while some of the apes followed their example, and
presently the ungainly skiff was moving quietly out to sea in the direction=
of
the light which rose and fell gently with the swell.
A sleepy sailor k=
ept
a poor vigil upon the Cowrie's deck, while in the cabin below Schneider pac=
ed
up and down arguing with Jane Clayton.
The woman had found a revolver in a table drawer in the room in which
she had been locked, and now she kept the mate of the Kincaid at bay with t=
he
weapon.
The Mosula woman
kneeled behind her, while Schneider paced up and down before the door,
threatening and pleading and promising, but all to no avail. Presently from the deck above came a sh=
out of
warning and a shot. For an instant=
Jane
Clayton relaxed her vigilance, and turned her eyes toward the cabin
skylight. Simultaneously Schneider=
was
upon her.
The first intimat=
ion
the watch had that there was another craft within a thousand miles of the
Cowrie came when he saw the head and shoulders of a man poked over the ship=
's
side. Instantly the fellow sprang=
to his
feet with a cry and levelled his revolver at the intruder. It was his cry and the subsequent repor=
t of
the revolver which threw Jane Clayton off her guard.
Upon deck the qui=
et
of fancied security soon gave place to the wildest pandemonium. The crew of the Cowrie rushed above arm=
ed
with revolvers, cutlasses, and the long knives that many of them habitually
wore; but the alarm had come too late.
Already the beasts of Tarzan were upon the ship's deck, with Tarzan =
and
the two men of the Kincaid's crew.
In the face of the
frightful beasts the courage of the mutineers wavered and broke. Those with revolvers fired a few scatte=
ring
shots and then raced for some place of supposed safety. Into the shrouds went some; but the ape=
s of
Akut were more at home there than they.
Screaming with te=
rror
the Maoris were dragged from their lofty perches. The beasts, uncontrolled =
by
Tarzan who had gone in search of Jane, loosed the full fury of their savage
natures upon the unhappy wretches who fell into their clutches.
Sheeta, in the
meanwhile, had felt his great fangs sink into but a single jugular. For a moment he mauled the corpse, and =
then
he spied Kai Shang darting down the companionway toward his cabin.
With a shrill scr=
eam
Sheeta was after him--a scream which awoke an almost equally uncanny cry in=
the
throat of the terror-stricken Chinaman.
But Kai Shang rea=
ched
his cabin a fraction of a second ahead of the panther, and leaping within
slammed the door--just too late.
Sheeta's great body hurtled against it before the catch engaged, and=
a
moment later Kai Shang was gibbering and shrieking in the back of an upper =
berth.
Lightly Sheeta sp=
rang
after his victim, and presently the wicked days of Kai Shang of Fachan were
ended, and Sheeta was gorging himself upon tough and stringy flesh.
A moment scarcely=
had
elapsed after Schneider leaped upon Jane Clayton and wrenched the revolver =
from
her hand, when the door of the cabin opened and a tall and half-naked white=
man
stood framed within the portal.
Silently he leaped
across the cabin. Schneider felt s=
inewy
fingers at his throat. He turned h=
is
head to see who had attacked him, and his eyes went wide when he saw the fa=
ce
of the ape-man close above his own.
Grimly the fingers
tightened upon the mate's throat. =
He
tried to scream, to plead, but no sound came forth. His eyes protruded as he struggled for
freedom, for breath, for life.
Jane Clayton seiz=
ed
her husband's hands and tried to drag them from the throat of the dying man;
but Tarzan only shook his head.
"Not
again," he said quietly.
"Before have I permitted scoundrels to live, only to suffer and=
to
have you suffer for my mercy. This=
time
we shall make sure of one scoundrel--sure that he will never again harm us =
or
another," and with a sudden wrench he twisted the neck of the perfidio=
us
mate until there was a sharp crack, and the man's body lay limp and motionl=
ess
in the ape-man's grasp. With a ges=
ture
of disgust Tarzan tossed the corpse aside.
Then he returned to the deck, followed by Jane and the Mosula woman.=
The battle there =
was
over. Schmidt and Momulla and two =
others
alone remained alive of all the company of the Cowrie, for they had found s=
anctuary
in the forecastle. The others had =
died,
horribly, and as they deserved, beneath the fangs and talons of the beasts =
of
Tarzan, and in the morning the sun rose on a grisly sight upon the deck of =
the unhappy
Cowrie; but this time the blood which stained her white planking was the bl=
ood
of the guilty and not of the innocent.
Tarzan brought fo=
rth
the men who had hidden in the forecastle, and without promises of immunity =
from
punishment forced them to help work the vessel--the only alternative was
immediate death.
A stiff breeze had
risen with the sun, and with canvas spread the Cowrie set in toward Jungle
Island, where a few hours later, Tarzan picked up Gust and bid farewell to
Sheeta and the apes of Akut, for here he set the beasts ashore to pursue the
wild and natural life they loved so well; nor did they lose a moment's time=
in
disappearing into the cool depths of their beloved jungle.
That they knew th=
at
Tarzan was to leave them may be doubted--except possibly in the case of the
more intelligent Akut, who alone of all the others remained upon the beach =
as
the small boat drew away toward the schooner, carrying his savage lord and
master from him.
And as long as th=
eir
eyes could span the distance, Jane and Tarzan, standing upon the deck, saw =
the
lonely figure of the shaggy anthropoid motionless upon the surf-beaten sand=
s of
Jungle Island.
It was three days later that the Cowrie =
fell
in with H.M. sloop-of-war Shorewater, through whose wireless Lord Greystoke
soon got in communication with London.
Thus he learned that which filled his and his wife's heart with joy =
and
thanksgiving--little Jack was safe at Lord Greystoke's town house.
It was not until =
they
reached London that they learned the details of the remarkable chain of
circumstances that had preserved the infant unharmed.
It developed that
Rokoff, fearing to take the child aboard the Kincaid by day, had hidden it =
in a
low den where nameless infants were harboured, intending to carry it to the
steamer after dark.
His confederate a=
nd
chief lieutenant, Paulvitch, true to the long years of teaching of his wily
master, had at last succumbed to the treachery and greed that had always ma=
rked
his superior, and, lured by the thoughts of the immense ransom that he might
win by returning the child unharmed, had divulged the secret of its parenta=
ge
to the woman who maintained the foundling asylum. Through her he had arranged for the sub=
stitution
of another infant, knowing full well that never until it was too late would
Rokoff suspect the trick that had been played upon him.
The woman had
promised to keep the child until Paulvitch returned to England; but she, in
turn, had been tempted to betray her trust by the lure of gold, and so had
opened negotiations with Lord Greystoke's solicitors for the return of the
child.
Esmeralda, the old
Negro nurse whose absence on a vacation in America at the time of the abduc=
tion
of little Jack had been attributed by her as the cause of the calamity, had
returned and positively identified the infant.
The ransom had be=
en
paid, and within ten days of the date of his kidnapping the future Lord
Greystoke, none the worse for his experience, had been returned to his fath=
er's
home.
And so that last =
and
greatest of Nikolas Rokoff's many rascalities had not only miserably miscar=
ried
through the treachery he had taught his only friend, but it had resulted in=
the
arch-villain's death, and given to Lord and Lady Greystoke a peace of mind =
that
neither could ever have felt so long as the vital spark remained in the bod=
y of
the Russian and his malign mind was free to formulate new atrocities against
them.
Rokoff was dead, =
and
while the fate of Paulvitch was unknown, they had every reason to believe t=
hat
he had succumbed to the dangers of the jungle where last they had seen him-=
-the
malicious tool of his master.
And thus, in so f=
ar
as they might know, they were to be freed for ever from the menace of these=
two
men--the only enemies which Tarzan of the Apes ever had had occasion to fea=
r,
because they struck at him cowardly blows, through those he loved.
It was a happy family party that were re=
united
in Greystoke House the day that Lord Greystoke and his lady landed upon Eng=
lish
soil from the deck of the Shorewater.
Accompanying them
were Mugambi and the Mosula woman whom he had found in the bottom of the ca=
noe
that night upon the bank of the little tributary of the Ugambi.
The woman had
preferred to cling to her new lord and master
rather than return to the marriage she had tried to escape.
Tarzan had propos=
ed
to them that they might find a home upon his vast African estates in the la=
nd
of the Waziri, where they were to be sent as soon as opportunity presented
itself.
Possibly we shall=
see
them all there amid the savage romance of the grim jungle and the great pla=
ins
where Tarzan of the Apes loves best to be.
Who knows?